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.
Privately, many bankers admit their immediate goal is not growth but slowing the erosion of Casa deposits, reveals Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Over 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses are non-compliant with e-invoicing norms under the goods and services tax (GST) regime, a mandatory requirement for businesses with an annual turnover of over Rs 5 crore. E-invoicing provides real-time access to invoices that are prepared by the supplier on the purchase of goods, allowing faster accessibility to input tax credit, thereby limiting the manipulation of fake credit as it has to be generated before the transaction. "The default has been reported mainly in businesses with a turnover between Rs 5 crore and Rs 20 crore," a senior official informed
With Donald Trump all set to become US president, Indian exporters may face high customs duties for goods like automobiles, textiles and pharmaceuticals if the new US administration decides to pursue the 'America First' agenda, opined trade experts. Experts also said that Trump could also tighten H-1B visa rules, impacting costs and growth for Indian IT firms. Over 80 per cent of India's IT export earnings come from the US, making it vulnerable to changes in visa policies.
After adding 11.7 million workers in the October 2022-September 2023 period from the pandemic lows in April 2021-March 2022, total workers employed in the vast informal sector in India - at 109.6 million - still remains below the pre-pandemic period.
Insurance companies may soon face goods and services tax (GST) audits as tax authorities plan a "deep dive" into their business practices to check for the possibility of a raft of tax-linked irregularities. Several insurance companies are being probed for wrongly availing of the input tax credit without the underlying supply of goods and services based on fake invoices generated by their channel partners and intermediaries. "We want to deep dive into the overall business and see if there are further taxation issues besides commissions, which are already being investigated," a senior official of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs said.
What is most troubling is that not a single party that is part of INDIA has talked about any kind of reform and economic sense, argues R Jagannathan.
The liquidity in the banking system moved into surplus almost after three months as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) absorbed over Rs 40,000 crore from the market on Monday, predominantly on the back of increased government spending. However, this situation may be short-lived given the higher demand for funds to pay taxes and year-end targets, treasury executives said. Meanwhile, two variable reverse repo rate (VRRR) auctions held on Tuesday received weak response.
Rising energy demand could tilt India's energy basket towards fossil fuels from coal to oil, natural gas.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
On the telecom sector, he demanded auctioning of more spectrum.
Exporters on Thursday sought a fund of Rs 750 crore for three years to tap USD 25 billion export potential in the US, aiming to seize potential opportunities that may arise as the US President-elect, Donald Trump, has threatened to impose high tariffs on Chinese goods. In its pre-Budget meeting with the finance ministry, Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President Ashwani Kumar has also demanded extension of the five per cent Interest Equalisation Scheme (IES).
Continuing the upward trend, GST collections rose 10 per cent to about Rs 1.64 lakh crore in December compared to Rs 1.49 lakh crore in the same month a year ago. During the April-December 2023 period, gross Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection witnessed a robust 12 per cent growth, reaching Rs 14.97 lakh crore against Rs 13.40 lakh crore mopped up in the same period of the previous year, the finance ministry said in a statement on Monday. The average monthly gross GST collection of Rs 1.66 lakh crore in the first nine-month period this year represents a 12 per cent increase compared to the Rs 1.49 lakh crore average recorded in the corresponding period of FY23, it added.
ABB India's March quarter results (Q1CY24) were led by strong margin performance. Revenue was, however, largely in line with estimates at Rs 3,080 crore (up 28 per cent Y-o-Y and up 12 per cent Q-o-Q). The growth was across electrification (30 per cent Y-o-Y), process automation (73 per cent Y-o-Y) and robotics & motion (8 per cent Y-o-Y).
The GST Council, headed by Jaitley and comprising representatives of all the states, is scheduled to meet in Srinagar on May 18-19 to finalise tax rates on different goods and services after unifying at least 10 indirect taxes into the Goods and Services Tax.
India's Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection surged to Rs 1.30 lakh crore in October, the second highest since its implementation in July 2017, indicating economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and impact of festive demand, a finance ministry statement said on Monday. The highest GST collection of Rs 1.41 lakh crore was recorded in April 2021. This is the fourth time in a row when the GST collection was upwards of Rs 1 lakh crore. The collection from GST was Rs 1.17 lakh crore in September, 2021.
'Why has Maharashtra slipped up over the past couple of decades?' 'Not only is this question critical for residents of the state, but given that it accounts for 14% of India's GDP, a faster-growing Maharashtra implies a faster-growing India as well, point out Shishir Gupta and Rishita Sachdeva.
CAG recommended fixing a definite time frame for rolling out simplified GST return forms.
"Reaching an international agreement on how large digital companies are taxed has been a priority for the chancellor since he took office," said a spokesperson for his UK treasury office. "The chancellor's consistent position has been that it matters where tax is paid, and any agreement must ensure digital businesses pay tax in the UK that reflects their economic activities. That is what our taxpayers would expect and is the right thing," the spokesperson said.
The rising goods and services tax (GST) and personal income-tax collections may bolster the Narendra Modi government's ability to announce new schemes or enhance existing ones.
Amid the heavy downpour in Bengaluru, residents of many flood-affected areas have taken to social media to pour out their woes ranging from waterlogging to complaining about "crumbling" infrastructure.
The indirect tax reform Goods and Services Tax is stuck in the Rajya Sabha.
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.
Gandhi asserted that the Congress is going to defeat the BJP and its ideology.
Government introduced two Bills in Lok Sabha on Friday -- one seeking to phase out central sales tax in four stages and eventually abolish it in three years and another to give more operational flexibility to the Reserve Bank of India.
Besides Vodafone, several other major MNCs like Nokia and Shell were locked in tax dispute with the revenue department.
'In terms of incentives, if you think about it, hybrids are a 20-year-old technology.'
'Compare the new slabs with the previous years to understand if your tax liability will increase or decrease after the Budget.'
Stock to watch: Shipping Corporation and Great Eastern Shipping
'Banks may find small ticket size lending economically unviable due to the cost of branch operations.'
the largest transactions of the year include the merger of Quality Care India and Aster DM Healthcare valued at $5.08 billion, followed by Bharti Enterprises' acquisition of a 24.5 per cent stake in the BT Group at $4.08 billion, and a family settlement transaction in the Godrej family at $3.5 billion.
As per ICC norm, the host nation is required to get tax exemption from the government for hosting tournaments organised by the global body. Since India's tax rules don't allow such exemptions, the BCCI has already lost close to Rs 193 crore as the government didn't exempt tax surcharge for hosting the 2016 ICC T20 World Cup. The ICC is expecting US$ 533.29 million (Rs 4400 crores approx) from the broadcasting revenue of the 2023 event in India.
At a time when consumers increasingly embrace green mobility solutions, it is not electric cars but hybrids that are taking the lead, as automotive sales data indicate. Since January, 64,097 electric cars have been sold compared to 266,465 hybrids, according to data from the ministry of road transport and highways' Vahan dashboard. Hybrid car sales have surged from 4.42 per cent of the 4.1 million cars sold in calendar year 2022 to 7.2 per cent this year.
From attractive EMIs to assured buyback guarantees, luxury carmakers have lined up a slew of offers to woo customers this festival season to address dwindling sales amid rising inventories.
Ask rediffGURU and PF and MF expert Janak Patel your mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
Apple sought exemption from mandatory local sourcing of components for its products
The one national GST unifies the country's $2 trillion economy and 1.3 billion people into a common market, an exercise that took 17 tumultuous years.
The stock of the country's largest passenger vehicle maker, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL), has been hitting successive all-time highs over the past three trading sessions. The rally in the scrip has helped it notch over a 21 per cent gain since the start of February, outperforming the National Stock Exchange Nifty Auto Index. The gains for the leader of small passenger cars have been more recent, as the company still trails the Nifty Auto over one- and two-year periods.
The Budget should use the extra RBI surplus to better effect, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
The list of exempted goods from central excise duty has shrunk from 400 items in 2011-12 to 300 now.
