'Reduce your equity allocation, put that allocation into gold and fixed income.'
GST collections jumped 15 per cent to nearly Rs 1.68 lakh crore in November, the finance ministry said on Friday. Goods and Services Tax (GST) mop-up was over Rs 1.45 lakh crore in November 2022.
'The expeditious enactment of labour codes and strategic measures to bridge the skills jobs gap are critical.'
GST collection rose 11 per cent to over Rs 1.65 lakh crore in July as a result of anti-evasion measures and higher consumer spending. This is the fifth time since the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime that monthly collections have crossed the Rs 1.60 lakh crore mark -- making it the new normal. "Gross GST revenue collected in July is Rs 1,65,105 crore of which CGST is Rs 29,773 crore, SGST is Rs 37,623 crore, IGST is Rs 85,930 crore (including Rs 41,239 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 11,779 crore (including Rs 840 crore collected on import of goods)," the finance ministry said in a statement.
The tax department will remain a source of endless nightmares for citizens and 'transparent taxation' will remain an empty slogan and a cruel joke, observes Debashis Basu.
With industry and tax payer-friendly initiatives taken by Finance Minister P Chidambaram this year, the government succeeded in achieving unprecedented growth in tax collections. Consequently, the tax reforms have gained momentum and a roadmap is ready for implementing goods and service tax from April 1, 2010.
While the time frame may therefore be pushed back by a year, the debate on various aspects of the new tax regime has begun in earnest. Prominent among these is the question of whether there should be two sets of rates (one for the Centre, one for the states) or a single rate, the revenues from which would be shared between the Centre and the states.
Following the lacklustre growth numbers in the second quarter (Q2FY25), economists believe the upcoming Union Budget for 2025-26 should focus on reforms that will stimulate consumption, manufacturing and spur employment. India's growth unexpectedly slowed to 5.4 per cent in the second quarter, due to low capital formation, weak consumption, besides adverse weather impact.
GST necessarily includes service tax, but VAT can only be on goods without including service tax
Years of wait before DTC, GST are rolled out
There are reports that the government will soon cut income taxes by about Rs 50,000 crore to boost consumption.
Prime Minister Modi, I suggest that, instead, you distribute about one lakh crore rupees per year to the 80 crore poor, which will boost both consumption and economic growth, suggests Kalyan Singhal, McCurdy Professor of Business at the University of Baltimore.
Corporate India's struggle with subdued revenue and earnings growth persisted in the October-December quarter of 2024-25 (Q3FY25). The combined net sales (gross interest earnings for lenders) of listed companies grew in single digits for the seventh consecutive quarter, while their combined net profit rose by a single digit for the third straight quarter.
While 83 per cent of respondents do not expect major changes in the corporate taxation rates, they expect increase on the limits of tax savings investments especially linked to housing loan and principal repayments, the survey says.
GST authorities have identified about 17,000 non-existent GSTINs and cancelled over 4,900 registrations in the ongoing pan-India drive against fake registration, a senior tax official said on Wednesday. Currently, there are 1.40 crore businesses registered under Goods and Services Tax, nearly double the number of businesses registered in indirect tax regime pre-GST rollout. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) member Shashank Priya said in the drive against fake registration, till July 4, over 69,600 GST Identification Numbers (GSTINs) have been selected for physical verification by field tax officers.
Reminiscent of the past two years, the market has made positive strides ahead of the Union Budget 2023-24 (FY24). The benchmark National Stock Exchange Nifty has gained 1.8 per cent in the last month. Typically, markets tend to gain ahead of the Budget as investors build in optimism.
Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) reported a 25 per cent rise in net profit attributable to the owners of the company for the January-March quarter of 2024-25, owing to higher revenues and an exceptional gain. For the quarter under review, L&T posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 5,497.3 crore, while revenue rose 10.9 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 74,392.28 crore.
GST collections rose 28 per cent to Rs 1.49 lakh crore on an annual basis in July on the back of economic recovery and measures taken to curb tax evasion, the government said on Monday. In July, 2021, Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections stood at Rs 116,393 crore. The collections in July this year is the second highest since the introduction of GST in July 2017, the ministry said in a statement.
Whether one likes it or not, services constitute the value-addition sector that the country has to build on, using its comparative advantage in infotech and related skills, suggests T N Ninan.
Stepping up its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his 'redistribution of wealth' remark, the Congress on Tuesday said he will never tell people that more than 40 per cent of the wealth created in the country from 2012 to 2021 has gone to just one per cent of the population, and asserted that only an Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) government can deliver a vastly more inclusive economic growth.aax
The principal commissioner has been made responsible for developing and approving any intelligence, conducting search, and completing investigations and relevant subsequent actions, including at the lower field formations, points out T N C Rajagopalan.
With 7 per cent economic growth, India is not creating enough jobs as reflected by the number of applicants for vacant posts in some states, Reserve Bank's former governor Raghuram Rajan said and suggested the government needs to focus on promoting labour-intensive industries to generate employment. Rajan further said some Indians, especially those at upper level, are comfortable and have high incomes, but consumption growth from the lower half of the country has still not recovered to pre-pandemic level.
The government is mulling changes in the income tax laws to bring cryptocurrencies under the tax net, with some changes that could form part of the Budget next year, a top official said. Revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said that in terms of income tax, some people are already paying capital gains tax on the income from cryptocurrency, and in respect of Goods and Services Tax (GST) also the law is "very clear" that the rate would be applicable as those in case of other services.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
The government has proposed to replace the Income Tax Act of 1961 with a direct taxes code, which would simplify the legislation.
The impact of Trump's announcement of increasing import tariffs will have negligible benefit for India not because of companies trying to shift from China to other countries or their supply chains being affected due to their Chinese operations but because of our faulty policies, explains Mudit Jain.
We have entered a new era in human history, asserts Aakar Patel.
From 2010 onwards, states will get power to levy and collect the dual goods and service tax (GST) on certain services like amusement parks, private health and education services.
The web page also enables filing of grievances in relation to the implementation of GST
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 country's largest private lender HDFC Bank on Saturday reported a 6.51 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 16,474.85 crore in the April-June quarter compared to the previous January-March quarter. The city-headquartered lender, which merged its mortgage major parent HDFC into itself in July last year, had reported a net profit of Rs 17,622.38 crore in the March quarter. On a standalone basis, the net profit declined to Rs 16,174.75 crore in April-June 2024-25 from Rs 16,511.85 crore in January-March 2023-24.
The FM flew to Chennai on Sunday to inaugurate Nandavanam, the central revenue quarters of the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs at Anna Nagar in Chennai.
With a view to keeping inflation under check, essential items including food, which presently constitute roughly half of the consumer inflation basket, will be taxed at zero rate.
The collection from borrowings and other liabilities will be 20 paise, while income tax will yield 17 paise to every rupee collection.
India SME Forum, an organisation for small and medium businesses, has called for creating a dedicated fund of Rs 5000 crore for the export capacity development, promotion, and marketing of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in its Budget recommendation. The forum for MSMEs with over 98,000 members said that to enhance India's global competitiveness and increase its market share in global exports, it was "crucial to increase the number of active exporters and enable at least 3-4 lakh first-time micro, small, and medium exporters while supporting them in promoting Indian products globally."
Besides Vodafone, several other major MNCs like Nokia and Shell were locked in tax dispute with the revenue department.
The surprise action comes weeks after the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and India.
Sandeep Shanbhag, a chartered accountant and director of Wonderland Consultants, a tax and financial advisory firm, discussed the impact of Budget proposals in a chat with Rediff.com's readers.
The CBEC will itself be rechristened as the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and will supervise GST and Customs activities and provide the government policy inputs.
'I am very happy to see that the work is starting to bear some fruit now.'
The minister also announced that the low-cost housing (property up to Rs 20 lakh) segment would be exempted from service tax.
