However, the prime minister has told confidants that he was unable to do justice to the foreign affairs portfolio and admitted the need for a full-time foreign minister.
The finance ministry on Friday amended the foreign exchange management rules to exclude international credit card spends from the purview of liberalised remittance scheme (LRS). The amendment to the Foreign Exchange Management (Current Account Transactions) Rules, 2000, will be effective retrospectively from May 16, the ministry said in a notification. "...the use of International Credit Card for making payment by a person towards meeting expenses while such person is on a visit outside India" will not be covered under LRS, the notification said while inserting Rule 7 in the FEM (CAT) Rules.
The onus of framing and implementation of reform-oriented policies will be in the Finance Ministry.
The government has merged the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) with the finance ministry to give it a better control over state-owned firms and facilitate its ambitious privatisation programme. Finance ministry will now have six departments while DPE's hereto parent ministry, the ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises will now be called the ministry of heavy industries. Previously, the disinvestment ministry - created under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government - was merged with the finance ministry and is now a department under it. Also, Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) was abolished and administration of foreign investments was given to the finance ministry (FinMin).
The country's new home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, today said he prefers a Congressman as his successor in the finance ministry, setting off speculation about the implication of his statement.
Here is the complete list of ministers in Modi 3.0 and their portfolios:
'They think quick fixes like internship in the private sector will help. 'In fact, internships have been going on for the last one decade.' 'In 2014-2015 itself, we had a ministry of skill development. None of the programmes have yielded results, still they are continuing with such schemes under some other name.' 'We don't see any seriousness on the part of the government to attack the problem of unemployment.'
'Some of the astounding proposals, if translated into statutory provisions, would be suicidal.' 'This would not be a wonder cure for increasing insurance penetration and only result in mushrooming growth of players like paan kiosks with deleterious consequences.'
Nationalist Congress Party leader Jayant Patil on Tuesday became the new Home Minister of Maharashtra.Dilip Valse Patil, also of NCP, has been given Finance Ministry, sources said.The Home portfolio was earlier held by NCP's R R Patil, who along with Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, resigned following the terror attacks in the city.
Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) chairman Bibek Debroy passed away this morning, a senior EAC-PM official said. He was admitted to AIIMS. Debroy (69) was educated in Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur; Presidency College, Kolkata; Delhi School of Economics; and Trinity College, Cambridge.
'The Budget that Mr Jaitley will present on February 29 will be crucial.'
Goods and Services Tax collections jumped 10.4 per cent to over Rs 1.72 lakh crore in January, reflecting buoyant economic activity and setting the stage for the next phase of GST reforms. This is the second-highest monthly collection ever and marks the third month in this financial year with a collection of Rs 1.70 lakh crore or more, a finance ministry statement said on Wednesday.
The Unified Pension System (UPS), approved by the Union Cabinet on Saturday, is "fiscally prudent" as it will be funded within the Centre's fiscal projections, according to T V Somanathan, the Cabinet Secretary-designate. Speaking to Business Standard immediately after the Cabinet nod, former finance secretary Somanathan, who headed the committee set up in March 2023 to review the National Pension System (NPS), said the UPS will not postpone pension expenditure as it will be contributory and financed each year.
According to a senior commerce ministry official, the Budget sought to withdraw some significant stimulus measures "in a clandestine manner", which would affect exports and lead to impediments in efforts to achieve $450 billion worth of exports by 2013-14, from around $250 billion at present.
Five state-run general insurance companies have a total exposure of Rs 347.64 crore, or 0.14 per cent of their total assets under management (AUM), in Adani group of companies, the finance ministry said on Monday. In a written reply to a question by Congress' Manish Tewari, Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said Life Insurance Corp (LIC) held Rs 35,917.31 crore in debt and equity of Adani group of companies as on December 31, 2022. This is 0.97 per cent of its total assets under management (AUM) of Rs 41.66 trillion.
While Moily refused to elaborate on the reasons for the deferment, sources said his ministry had raised concerns over pricing of IOC shares.
Unlike the finance ministry which takes a larger view, the commerce ministry only looks at exporters' interests.
From the rollback of customs duty on key electronic components to fast tracking delivery of goods imported from China, players are looking for incentives on several counts.
The finance ministry's tenancy rights to the RBI governorship distort policy and regulation.
'The vision now is not just to look at national highways as a number of kilometres, but quality as well.'
As the ministry of finance gets into the Budget mode, its officials perhaps want to tell themselves, "All is well". So, they have none other than Aamir Khan, alias Rancho of recent Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots, talking to them this weekend on Cinema and Society.
Among the new entrants to the Union cabinet, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the agriculture and rural development portfolios, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda the health portfolio and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar the power portfolio.
The central government has given banks and credit card entities six to eight months to put in place the requisite reporting mechanism and related features to collect tax at source on international credit card transactions, a senior bureaucrat told Business Standard. According to the bureaucrat, the plan to bring overseas credit cards under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) has not been mothballed and is simply being deferred so that banks get adequate time to get the system up and running. The official expects the reporting mechanism to be ready in the given time, and the rule could be implemented in the next financial year (2024-25, or FY25).
Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) may require at least five more years to comply with the minimum public shareholding of 25 per cent beyond the current exempted timeline of 2027. Formal communication in this regard had been shared recently with the finance ministry, underlining LIC's roadmap, plans of further dilution of stake, current norms around public float, and challenges ahead, a government source familiar with the matter said. "Going forward, we will have to take a call, along with Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and the Department of Economic Affairs on the roadmap for minimum public shareholding (MPS).
The net direct tax collection increased by 21.82 per cent to over Rs 9.57 lakh crore till October 9, helped by good inflow from corporates and individuals, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. The net collections have reached 52.5 per cent of the full-year budget estimates (BE) of Rs 18.23 lakh crore. The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections up to October 9, 2023, continue to register steady growth, the statement said.
India has reduced the time period for foreign investors to seek international arbitration from five years to three years as part of the recently signed investment pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a departure from its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Under the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, if the Indian judicial system is unable to resolve a dispute within this shortened period, investors can resort to international arbitration. The investment pact, signed on February 13 in Abu Dhabi, came into force on August 31, replacing the previous pact.
Seven of the meetings will be held in late November or early December at the finance ministry, as is the norm.
The department has proposed to pool prices of imported and domestically produced natural gas.
Many financial sector reforms suggested by the Percy Mistry Committee may not figure in Budget 2008-09.
'There will be 200 ITIs developed as hubs, while 800 will be developed as spoke, connected with five National Skill Training Institutes.'
The government is confident of meeting the fiscal deficit target of 5.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) and the nominal GDP target of 10.5 per cent despite pressure in the initial months of FY24, Economic Affairs secretary Ajay Seth told Business Standard. Normally the initial months of any financial year see proportionally a higher fiscal deficit because the expenditure is evenly paced while revenue picks up in the later months, he said. "This year the proportional fiscal deficit so far is much closer to the target than in most other years.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday pitched for front loading of capital expenditure, saying it is critical for revitalisting the economy post the coronavirus pandemic. During a virtual meeting with senior government officials to discuss the infrastructure roadmap ahead, she also asked ministries to aim to achieve more than their capital expenditure (capex) targets. The Union Budget 2021-22 provided a capital outlay of Rs.5.54 lakh crore, a sharp increase of 34.5 per cent over the Budget Estimate of 2020-21.
A delegation of high-level executives from US public pension funds (non-profit and government sectors) is visiting India next week to assess and familiarise themselves with the investment opportunities in the country. These executives belong to various American states and cumulatively represent $1.8 trillion in assets under management (AUM) invested across the US and global markets. The United States (US) mission to India, which includes its embassy and consulates and the Department of Treasury, along with India's Ministry of Finance and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), is hosting the delegation.
In a pre-Budget memorandum, the ministry has submitted to the finance ministry that the industry may not accept bonds this fiscal. Nevertheless, the ministry's latest position seems to be in sync with the demand of the fertiliser industry that has persistently maintained that the securities are mostly trading in discount, affecting the balance sheet of companies.
GST collections rose 12 per cent to over Rs 1.49 lakh crore in February, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. February 2023 witnessed the highest cess collection of Rs 11,931 crore since implementation of GST. The collections are, however, lower than the second highest Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up recorded in January at over Rs 1.57 lakh crore.
Coming Wednesday, Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman will present the 2023 Union Budget - the last full Budget ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While India exited 2022 as a relatively bright spot in the global economy, the FM will endeavour to present a Budget that insulates India's economy against global headwinds and recession in advanced economies, while sticking to the path of fiscal consolidation. In this, she is being helped by her core team of trusted advisors.
For 2015-16, the planned outlay for the department was Rs 2,568 crore.
The finance ministry wants the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to switch its policy stance, with growth concerns occupying centre stage and inflation showing signs of moderating.
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