For the government to meet its GST roll-out deadline of April 1, 2017, the states will have to ratify the Bill before Parliament's winter session, starting November.
The new Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian believes that more than unemployment, it is the quality of employment which needs to be focused on. In an interview with Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana, Subramanian said that controlling inflation was the Modi government's biggest achievement.
New data is puzzling as these aren't corroborated by other data
'Most of the measures the finance minister announced will take effect after the lockdown.' 'By that time, millions of people will be starving.'
Slight recovery in growth is expected only in July-September.
The event will be significant for the Congress and Trinamool Congress leaderships, cementing the proximity during the winter session of Parliament.
'Willing to spend is different from when to spend and how much to spend'
'I would like to convey the message to your readers that the prime minister himself is directly seized of the situation on the ground. He periodically reviews the situation on the ground and how it is moving forward, taking inputs from economists, business leaders, chambers of commerce.'
If people can lobby me for making changes in policies that goes against the country's interest, I won't keep myself in this position, says the vice chairman of NITI Aayog.
Punjab National Bank has made a name for itself in recovery of bad loan dues. Usha Ananthasubramanian, managing director and chief executive officer of the government-owned lender, explains how it has achieved this reputation.
P P Chaudhary the newly-appointed minister of state for corporate affairs, is monitoring and coordinating actions against shell companies.
Fifty-six months on, the government's record in implementing these schemes and projects has been mixed, report Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana.
'The CEA suggested that could be as high as 19 per cent.'
With certain quarters demanding privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister chairman Bibek Debroy tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Ishan Bakshi and Indivjal Dhasmana that reducing government equity even to zero would not mean giving up of government control over these banks.
Consensus seems a problem before the current session of Parliament ends.
NITI Aayog vice chairperson Rajiv Kumar tells Indivjal Dhasmana that additional funds could be generated through divestment, and that the fiscal deficit should be widened while focusing on the revenue deficit.
The GST Network's chairman Navin Kumar speaks to Dilasha Seth and Indivjal Dhasmana on various aspects of the new tax regime.
'Normally, the system is geared towards counting notes -- it is equipped to do x amount of work and one day you are asking them to do 20 x.' 'The processes involved are very complex.'
'While collections under the Income Disclosure Scheme explain it partly, indirect tax numbers not showing any effect of the withdrawal of high denomination currency notes was puzzling.'
It is not a good idea to take the line that since demonetisation happened in the third quarter, everything that happened then was a consequence of that, says Chief Statistician TCA Anant.
'Because of the government's step, the people are now going to splurge on consumption.' 'If you ask me, would growth be 8% for 2017-2018, I would say 7.5% because of the demonetisation move would not be very significant.'
With less than five months left for the report of the Fifteenth Finance Commission to be submitted, its chairman N K Singh said the report will have fiscal road map for states, depending on their current situation.
We should improve the business climate in Mumbai and Delhi, and India's ranking would immediately shoot up, says Bibek Debroy, a full member of NITI Aayog.
'Now, we have a minimum pension of Rs 1,000 annually.'
After the 2019 election, one thing is sure: GST will see a number of changes, explains Indivjal Dhasmana.
Workers' attitude is changing and they want to work more and demand more wages. They want more productivity.
Bureaucratic insensitivity gave way to compassion with the state administration, police and passersby joining forces to help the stream of Indians fleeing Delhi.
Budget clearly prioritised growth over fiscal consolidation, said Atsi Sheth, Senior VP, Moody's Investors Service.
'There is a law that prevents the government from diluting its equity in the PSBs below 50 per cent.' 'That law has to be amended and given the parliamentary arithmetic of the political parties, it is not as simple to do that.'
'The rupee falling from 69 to 72 was not normal or justified by the fundamentals.' 'And therefore I treat this as temporary.'
However, independent economists are not as gung-ho as the finance ministry over the likelihood of deficit target being met this time around, says Indivjal Dhasmana.
"At present, there are two main rate slabs under which sa majority of goods are covered -- five per cent and 12.5 per cent -- which will now increase to three (five per cent, 12 per cent and 18 per cent).Will this result in multiple litigations is anybody's guess."
In the run up to three years of the National Democratic Alliance government, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) Nirmala Sitharaman says it is time to consolidate some of the major initiatives as well as take new steps.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley witll spearhead the campaign with BJP President Amit Shah as its chief strategist.
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian says that he hopes GDP growth will be at the upper end of the 7-7.5 per cent range.
At ATMs, as a step to avoid getting Rs 2,000 notes, people are withdrawing Rs 1,900 in Rs 100 notes and then putting another request for the balance Rs 600, so that they remain within the limit of Rs 2,500 per day of withdrawal.
Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian discusses the Budget, goods and services tax, Centre-state relationship and larger issues facing the economy
With EU, it is part of the FTA that we will need to negotiate.
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