Long-term capital gains tax may be scrapped and the burden of dividend distribution tax could perhaps be shifted from companies to shareholders. Also, the Budget could provide income tax relief for the salaried classes, while proposing tax sops for small, medium and micro enterprises.
A task force formed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday discussed steps to enhance credit to MSMEs, which contribute 45 per cent to the country's industrial production.
The current slowdown has lasted for over 18 months and is the longest incident of sluggishness since 2006.
'The way opposition parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Jharkhand Mukti Morch have supported her, if she wins, she will be the biggest opposition face for 2024'
The government will address the credit needs of the tiny and small firms, while a separate fund for enterprises in the unorganised sector is proposed, new Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Dinsha Patel said after taking charge.
Gandhi said if money is not given in the hands of the poor and small and medium industry, there could be "serious economic damage" in the country.
Modi, after delivering his sixth straight address to the nation on Independence Day from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi, went into a brainstorming session with Sitharaman and all top officials in her ministry, sources privy to the development said. T
'He spoke about 20 jawans in Ladakh, but he couldn't even name China.' 'He said the world had seen what had been achieved, even though we Indians don't know because Modi has himself said that nothing had happened and nobody had come,' points out Aakar Patel.
While the meetings on Friday were preliminary discussions, it is learnt that sectors like tourism; hospitality; aviation; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); and livestock have sought deferring loan repayments and temporary tax holidays in specific cases to help them tide over the steep fall in economic activity.
'In 2016, we had De-Mon and in 2017, we had GST.' 'The combined impact of these two started showing up in 2019 and 2020.' 'COVID-19 only added insult to injury.'
'I have tried to make it easier for the small scale entrepreneur to do business and cut through the red tape.'
Long-term investors should consider moving into smaller stocks. Rather than try to pick stocks, it makes sense to build a diversified portfolio by exposure across midcap and small caps funds, suggests Devangshu Datta.
Globally, the focus has moved back to India, especially in terms of telecom assets. Vodafone Idea, with some 300 million customers, continues to be attractive with shares available at a low price.
Currently, banks follow system of internal benchmarks, including Prime Lending Rate, Benchmark Prime Lending Rate, Base rate and Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate.
A number of micro and small enterprises in the country have expressed fear that there would be large-scale job losses in the sector if the global recessionary trend continues, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.
Addressing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Gandhi said it should worry every Indian and her party will have to work hard to repair this damage.
'When the country is jobless, why should I pay through my nose to feed these people who want some perks in office?' 'Let them also join India's unemployed.' 'Let them also taste the bitter medicine of being jobless.'
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would further cut down key policy rates with inflation continuing its downward trend, Punjab National Bank chairman and managing director K C Chakrabarty said.
The interim Budget has attempted to tick all the boxes that could help the Modi government return to power, reports Archis Mohan.
Mukesh Ambani-promoted Mumbai Special Economic Zone Company (MSME) has claimed a rehabilitation package drafted by it is better than the one cleared by the government.The MSEZ package offers many attractive monetary benefits and career opportunities.
Companies, so far, were constrained by the provisions of Articles 370 and 35A, which restricted the purchase of land and hiring manpower.
The government has also extended till August 31 the repayment date of short-term crop loan of up to Rs 3 lakh for agriculture and allied activities. The decision, taken by the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will give respite to farmers and also help them take a call on which kharif (summer) crop to grow as sowing picks up with the arrival of southwest monsoon.
For states like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where migration is high, the return of workers could be as much an opportunity as a liability. All states have launched portals to register migrant workers; additional fields like nature of employment and remuneration in the past 2-3 years are being added to help in skill mapping.
Demonetisation and GST are the main reasons for the job losses.
'Karna is the greatest warrior in the Mahabharata -- in fact, Arjuna is a nobody in front of Karna.' 'But Arjuna had a better advisor in Krishna than Karna.' 'Karna failed because he listened to the wrong advice given by Salya.' 'It just shows wrong advisors can land even the mighty in trouble.'
6EPass coupons mainly for regular flyers who can travel without worrying about ticket price fluctuations
'The belief that FDI will shift from China appears to be a strategy of politicians to keep the media busy, chasing irrelevant news to ward off pressure and questions about the government's plans to deal with COVID,' observes Debashis Basu.
The government is considering to tweak FDI policy in retail sector so as to allow global chains like Walmart, Carrefour and Tesco to open multi-brand stores in non-hilly cities with population less than one million.
In a resolution passed at its national assembly in Haridwar, the SJM said the Modi government's proposed strategic divestment of PSEs was an "imprudent business decision" and "against national interest".
'Rather than cutting and pasting from advanced economies, we should use basic economic principles to think about what is right for India at the stage of development at which we are,' says Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian.
While, projects, including Rs 23,000 crore Purvanchal Expressway, totalling Rs 60,000 crore have already been launched, the Yogi Adityanath government is fast paving the way for laying the foundation of the remaining projects before the general election dates are announced.
Here's a recap of events that occurred in India in the past 24 hours.
At 47 protests a day, the state has become the most restive in the country and investors are becoming increasingly wary
'If the government spends Rs 10 lakh crore this year then you would be looking at a GDP growth of minus 5 per cent.' 'If you do not do this, you will be looking at GDP growth between minus nine and minus 10 per cent.'
'This government has not created any employment.' 'Forget employment, the government had not done anything in skill development.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral free automatic loan for businesses, including MSMEs, to benefit 45 lakh small businesses. Detailing parts of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package, she said this loan will have a 4-year tenure and will have 12-month moratorium, she said.
As the government plans to take sector-specific steps to tackle the slump, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will soon hold talks with representatives from various sectors to get and take steps so that the confidence of those sectors can be restored.
The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
'The current economic contraction is certainly due to the lockdowns as a response to the pandemic, which is an act of God.' 'Nobody has seen such a thing in the last 100 years.' 'Saying that this was an act of mismanagement is largely incorrect'
'One way of doing this could be offering credit guarantee to the banks, say 10 per cent, for fresh loans given to micro, small and medium enterprises,' observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
