The Indian insurance industry is set to focus on customer-centric technological adoption and expansion into rural areas to drive growth in 2025.
In today's dynamic economic landscape, commerce and management education is crucial for a global career, says Nayagam PP.
If the finance ministry finally allows the railways to expand its list of goods exempted from the service tax ambit, instead of a complete rollback to the 10 per cent service tax imposed on frieght movement, it could come as a reprieve for Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee.
'We've maintained that India is a high-penetration game. It's not only a premiumisation game.'
Supplying food to schools under mid-day meal scheme, pre-schools and anganwadis is exempt from GST, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has said. Issuing a set of clarification on certain decisions taken by the GST Council in its 43rd meeting on May 28, the CBIC said it had received representations regarding applicability of GST on the issues as to whether serving of food in schools under mid-day meals scheme would be exempt if such supplies are funded by government grants and/or corporate donations. Under the goods and services tax (GST), any catering service, including mid-day meals, provided to an educational institution is exempt from the levy.
European Union (EU) companies operating in India want New Delhi to streamline or remove non-tariff barriers such as Quality Control Orders (QCOs), complex Customs procedures; simplify labelling, testing, and import procedures; and facilitate cross-border digital transactions without data localisation constraints. These are results of a Business Sentiment Survey, 2025 conducted by the Federation of European Business in India (FEBI) ahead of resumption of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between both the sides scheduled to be concluded by year-end.
The Budget 2025-26 meets the expectations of fiscal consolidation, maintaining capital expenditure, and boosting consumption through tax cuts.
The sentence could go up to three years if the evasion exceeds Rs 50 lakh (5 million).
A 7:2 majority verdict by the apex court ruled that the tax legislation by the state does not require the consent of the President under Article 304 B of the Constitution
The National Informatics Centre uses AI to automate document analysis and detect fraud in government departments.
18% cent GST on iPhones continues to weigh heavily on the final cost to Indian consumers, limiting the impact of price cuts.
When the Centre collects money through cess, it can retain the entire fund for the particular scheme.
If growth reverts to the pre-Covid level, a lot of people may have to temper their rosy optimism, points out Debashis Basu.
Others taxed at 5, 12, 18, 28%
GST collections in March grew 11.5 per cent to Rs 1.78 lakh crore, buoyed by domestic transactions, the finance ministry said on Monday. The gross GST collection for the last fiscal (April 2023-March 2024) stood at Rs 20.14 lakh crore, 11.7 per cent higher than the mop-up in the preceding fiscal. The average monthly gross collection for FY24 stood at Rs 1.68 lakh crore, exceeding Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the preceding fiscal.
Experts said this will mean that companies, which have offices in multiple states, will have to raise Goods and Services Tax invoice for functions performed by employees in head office that has helped branches in other states.
In the face of tax blow, brokerages remain sanguine about the prospects of asset management companies (AMCs). A sharp correction in the shares of AMCs over the past three months factors in most of the negatives and turned valuations attractive, observe analysts. In its latest report, Kotak Institutional Equities (KIE) has upgraded HDFC AMC to 'add' (from 'reduce') and reprised 'add' and 'buy' ratings on the rest of the listed AMCs - Nippon, UTI, and Aditya Birla Sun Life.
Here are some goods that will be expensive after GST's implementation.
The country's gross GST collections rose to Rs 1.73 lakh crore in May, growing 10 per cent year on year driven by increased revenues from domestic transactions, the finance ministry said on Saturday. GST collections had touched a record high of Rs 2.10 lakh crore last month.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for 2023-24 in Parliament on February 1. The Budget is a statement of the government's estimated receipts and expenditures for a fiscal year (April 1 to March 31). It's divided into Revenue and Capital Budget. The Revenue Budget includes the government's revenue receipts and expenditures while the Capital Budget includes its capital receipts and payments.
Though the states might lose because of providing tax credit on input, they will also gain by way of taxing services. At present, only the Centre taxes around 100 types of services. Thus, the actual losses states might incur cannot be estimated until the GST is implemented.
For every rupee in the government coffer, 58 paise will come from direct and indirect taxes, 35 paise from borrowings and other liabilities, 5 paise from non-tax revenue like disinvestment and 2 paise from non-debt capital receipts, according to the Budget documents for 2022-23. According to the Union Budget 2022-23 presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, goods and services tax will contribute 16 paise in every rupee revenue, while corporation tax will contribute 15 paise to each rupee earned. The government is also looking to earn 7 paise for every rupee from Union excise duty and 5 paise from customs duty. Income tax will yield 15 paise to every rupee collection.
10 largecaps stocks which stand to gain from the Budget.
In a bid to provide a level playing field, the government has decided not to levy 2 per cent digital service tax if goods and services are sold through Indian arm of foreign e-commerce players.
Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal has sought systemic changes in the GST structure, saying every state and consumer has lost because of its basically flawed architecture that has also led to rampant revenue leakage for the states. The Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime came into force in July 2017. Even though the framework is focused on having a one-nation-one-tax model, quite a few items, including petroleum products and liquor are still out of the GST purview.
The government expects indirect tax collection to be lower than the Budget Estimate (BE) of Rs 13.38 trillion this fiscal year, despite prospects of netting goods and services tax (GST) in large amounts, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj has said. "Indirect tax collection may see lower realisation than budgeted on account of cuts in excise and customs duties. "We could see a shortfall of about Rs 1.5 trillion on account of those," he told Business Standard.
The Centre is unlikely to offer new direct tax incentives for units operating in special economic zones (SEZs) and may instead allow the grandfathering of previous exemptions that such units were entitled to, according to proposed amendments to the SEZ Act, 2005, people aware of the matter said. The amendments, proposed by the commerce department, will soon be considered by the Cabinet for approval. This represents a departure from the department's earlier plan to introduce these changes through the Development Enterprises and Services Hubs (DESH) Bill, 2023, which faced strong criticism from the ministry of finance.
Calling Service Tax Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme (VCES) a rare opportunity to make a "fresh start", Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday asked those in trade and industry to seize the offer, even as he made it clear that tax evaders would eventually be "reached".
It will reduce compliance cost as the assessee will not have to maintain multiple records for a variety of taxes
All eyes will be on whether Sitharaman provides the much-expected tax relief for the middle class, leaving more money in their hands, as there is tax buoyancy
India will be the world's third-largest economy by 2028 as it becomes the world's most sought-after consumer market and gains share in global output, driven by macro stability influenced policy and better infrastructure, Morgan Stanley said. From a $3.5 trillion economy in 2023, the Indian economy is projected to expand to $4.7 trillion in 2026, which will make it the fourth largest in the world behind the US, China and Germany.
Ask rediffGURU and PF expert Milind Vadjikar your insurance, stocks, mutual fund and personal finance-related questions.
In a negative list approach, barring a few services listed by the government, all others will be taxed.
There remains a debate on who said this: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?" Was it the British economist John Maynard Keynes or the American economist Paul Samuelson. Irrespective of who said it, this sentiment appears to have found resonance in ITC's boardroom in recent years.
GST collections in October stood at Rs 1.72 lakh crore, the second highest-ever, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. The collections are 13 per cent higher than the Rs 1.52 lakh crore collected in October 2022.
The liquidity will move into deficit after advance tax payments and GST outflows. It will rebound in October because of government spending.
In order to reduce government litigations, the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the GST Council has fixed a monetary limit for filing appeals by the tax department before the various appellate authorities. It has recommended a monetary limit of Rs 20 lakh for GST Appellate Tribunal, Rs 1 crore for the High Court and Rs 2 crore for the Supreme Court for filing of appeals by the department before these legal forums, she said after the 53rd GST Council meeting held in New Delhi.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has intervened in the matter concerning alleged irregularities by Trafiksol ITS Technologies, which had come out with a Rs 45 crore initial public offering (IPO) last month. In an ex-parte order, the market regulator has said it will undertake a detailed examination into the disclosures made by the small and medium enterprise (SME) company in its draft offer document. BSE had halted the listing of Trafiksol, a software provider for traffic systems, amid complaints around use of the issue proceeds and wrongful disclosures.
'The challenge is particularly daunting in the case of services, where it is often hard to define the exact amount of the service rendered.'
'Expect India to keep doing well irrespective of geopolitics.'
