Rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra was in Nalhati in the Birbhum district near the Bengal-Jharkhand border on Wednesday to cover the campaign of Abhijit Mukherjee, a former corporate executive and son of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. And here's what she saw.
Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra admits tax collection target for 2011-12 is ambitious but achievable.
'GST gives a huge relief to small businesses of India and West Bengal.'
The central government will lose about Rs 24,000 crore (Rs 240 billion) of revenue during the current fiscal on account of reduction in customs and excise duties on petroleum goods.
In a pre-Budget meeting with Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra, Ficci President Rajan Bharti Mittal said in view of the looming threat of a double-dip recession and another slowdown in western countries, the stimulus should not be rolled back in the Budget in February.
In an interview with Rediff.com's Indrani Roy-Mitra in 2005, Maqbool Fida Husain had talked about his latest art projects, his passion for Hindi films and India's place in the world of art. We reproduce the article in tribute to the painter who has passed into the ages
The government on Thursday said it may not be possible to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April next year, as the proposal needs consent from all the states. "...the (GST) legislation cannot be voted upon until the ratification is completed...there may be problem on the time factor (April 1, 2012)," Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra said at a CII post-Budget conference.
Hinting at the possibility of the Budget proposal for imposition of service tax on 25-bed hospitals and diagnostic check-ups being rolled back, the government has said it is willing to discuss the issue.
Delhi Police have registered an FIR against former state law minister and Aam Aadmi Party legislator Somnath Bharti over domestic violence allegations levelled against him by his wife, Lipika Mitra.
The state government as an interim measure would raise Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) from market borrowings and Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) as loan from small savings, Mitra told reporters at the state secretariat.
'If they succeed in silencing this great university, it will be a tragic day for the nation.'
The draft is in the form of a discussion paper, and has taken radical steps to improvise on the paper released in 2009 on the same issue.
In the revised Draft Taxes Code, which will replace the 50-year-old Income Tax Act, the finance ministry decided to drop its earlier proposal to tax the Government Provident Fund or the Public Provident Fund withdrawals.
As the Centre tried to build consensus on its proposal on constitution amendment bill, required for the rollout of GST, and even floated revised draft to please states, some states came out with alternative model that would not require the amendment of constitution.
The government has set a revenue target of Rs 9 lakh crore during the current financial year, a top official said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party garnered five seats, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got three, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got two apiece and the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena got one each respectively as all 30 made it to the Upper House after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations drew to close on Thursday evening.
The government on Wednesday said the total tax collections--both direct and indirect--for 2010-11 have exceeded even the revised estimate on the back of strong economic activities.
In the Budget for 2011-12, the government revised the tax mop-up target for 2010-11 to Rs. 4.46 lakh crore for direct taxes and Rs. 3.36 lakh crore for indirect taxes.
Rediff.com correspondent Indrani Roy Mitra and Photographer Dipak Chakraborty reached the accident site near Jhargram in West Bengal, where a Mumbai-bound train derailed, early on Friday morning. She chronicles the grim situation at ground zero and asks some tough questions.
The idea is not to form a Bengali lobby group but simply to get to know each other better.
The ministry had revised the estimates of direct and indirect taxes after healthy collection.
The Union ministry of information & broadcasting has constituted a committee headed by Amit Mitra, secretary general, FICCI, to review existing television rating point system (TRP) in India and suggest measures to bring in place an effective mechanism for a transparent TRP system in the country.
Once implemented, customers making payments using Rupay card or BHIM UPI will get a cashback of 20 per cent of the total GST amount, subject to a maximum of Rs 100.
The industry ministry in a recent concept paper proposed raising the FDI cap in the defence sector to 74 per cent.
Apprehensive that the Reserve Bank may tighten the screws on money supply to rein in the wayward inflation, the industry said the central bank should refrain from taking any knee-jerk reaction.
'Like doctors, health workers, police, bankers are also COVID warriors,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The much awaited new indirect tax regime Goods and Service Tax (GST) is unlikely to be implemented from the scheduled date of April 1, 2011, a top government official said on Tuesday.
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Disinvestment secretary Sunil Mitra last month wrote to his counterpart in Petroleum ministry R S Pandey seeking comments on 'public offerings from Government's shareholding' in ONGC and IOC. While government has not allowed IOC and other retailers Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum to raise petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene price in line with the cost, they have not been given the promised compensation.
The 2009 Budget had raised the rate of MAT to 15 per cent. The industry wants it to be lowered to at least 10 per cent in the forthcoming Budget.
Bigg Boss announces the task of choosing the first queen of this season. And we hand over the task to you!
The council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will meet again on December 11 and 12 to hammer out the differences.
'The Scindias betrayed Jhansi ki Rani and now the Congress party.' 'So this is nothing new as he is repeating the history of his family.'
The much-hyped winds of change may not be blowing strongly enough for North Bengal, which seems reluctant to give up its red awning, finds Indrani Roy Mitra
A group of Maoists kidnapped a school headmaster in West Bengal's Bankura District on Friday evening and threatened to kill him if the state government failed to release the six villagers arrested after police officer Rabi Lochan Mitra's murder. On Friday evening, the armed Maoists barged into Shibram Satpathy School in Sarulia village of the District and went around searching for its headmaster Ranjit Duley.
While the government has the option of ensuring the passage of these Bills as money Bills, there are voices within the government advising discretion on the GST roll-out by April 1.
In a tete-a-tete with Indrani Roy Mitra, young artist Paramita Chakraborty discusses her rather philosophical outlook towards life, her career and artistic influences.
Frenzied scenes were witnessed at the airport this morning when Pele landed in the Kolkata after 38 years as the 74-year-old Brazilian turned emotional and stood on the floor of his SUV to wave at the crowd, who kept chanting his name.
Ficci is also concerned that outsourcing, relaxation of export-controls on dual-use technology are other issues that can 'hinder' the burgeoning relationship.
A powerful bomb contained in a can was found at the Howrah railway station in Kolkata on Thursday, but it was defused before it could cause any damage
