Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who is meeting state finance ministers on Thursday to garner support for the Constitution Amendment Bill for a goods & services tax (GST), is likely to immediately dole out about Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) in Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation to states.
The aim is to reduce working expense by about 15 per cent.
80-85 per cent of about 700 major infrastructure projects within the Centre's domain have been delayed.
This is roughly 70% of the national transporter's budgeted wage bill of Rs 40,435 crore for the current financial year.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL) might be denied a higher gas price from its D1 and D3 fields until the arbitration process with the government is over and a third-party expert report on the fall in output at the KG-D6 block is out.
'He will go to any extent, and he will have the full support of the Union government as they may not like a Left government to continue here.'
Earlier, an inter-ministerial group used to take these decisions.
Planning Commission on Thursday said a desicion was expected shortlyon using foreign exchange reserves for infrastructure projects.
A top Home Ministry official said no note has been prepared yet to be placed before tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the Cabinet to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
'Both reflect prejudice and short-sightedness peculiar to Mr Modi's way of thinking.'
Ministries seek more discussions, Cabinet defers decision.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will take a final call on whether to break the tradition of presenting a separate Rail Budget, by merging it with the General Budget.
He also indicated that the current position of the rupee is competitive against world currencies.
United Nations proscribed terrorist Lakhvi, 61, who was on bail since 2015 in the Mumbai attack case, was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab province on Saturday.
'It is just an excuse to say that the Centre has run out of money.' 'Pruning these schemes would mean hard time for the people of India.'
Old ideas contained in the heads of old economists still dominate. That's not good, asserts T C A Srinivasa Raghavan.
The country was, in February, put on the list of jurisdictions that require increased monitoring. These are done to counter money-laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing in a more efficient manner.
State-run public sector undertakings live in a mysterious world, without scrutiny from analysts or the public. Here's an overview of Maharashtra's PSUs.
The panel will also recommend a fiscal consolidation road map for the central and state governments, study the impact of GST on the divisible pool, and propose performance-based incentives for states.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu faces a stiff dilemma on whether to raise fares and freight rates in his second Rail Budget.
The idea is to introduce in the next Budget a number of safeguards for preventing disputes with taxpayers.
A controversy broke out on Wednesday over whether or not West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was gheraoed by Left activists on Tuesday, ignored an advice to enter the Planning Commission building through the VIP gate.
Two successive reports, one by Percy Mistry in 2007 and the other by Raghuram Rajan in 2008 had provided the RBI and the finance ministry with blueprints of what to do next. Both reports, unfortunately, was put on ice. The global meltdown saved the RBI. It also saved the finance ministry from having to work on the two reports.
The Prime Minister directed that a special cell be created immediately in the Cabinet Secretariat.
Days after cutting the salaries and other allowances of MPs and ministers, the government has passed instructions to all departments to reduce their expenditure by as much as 60 per cent from their first-quarter spending plans.
After Nasim Zaidi retired as Chief Election Commissioner in July, there was a vacancy in the poll panel.
Can the newly-minted Jal Shakti ministry bring water to some 19 crore Indian households that have never had taps or heard the sound of flowing water, wonders Vinayak Chatterjee.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Army to put its "house in order", saying that it feels that it has not been "fair" to the women officers who have alleged delay in promotions after being granted permanent commission on the directions of the top court in 2020.
To curb mis-selling of policies and rationalise commissions, radical changes have been proposed to help investors.
'If some measures are implemented quickly, they can help revive growth.'
Outlay for infra is also expected to see a significant increase in view of the government's Rs 111-trillion investment plan under the national infrastructure pipeline to develop social and economic infrastructure over five years.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasising the need to kick-start investment in the country, the project monitoring group (PMG) under the Cabinet Secretariat has asked various government departments to start monitoring projects for which clearances have been facilitated through this mechanism.
Going by its past experience of differences between the central bank and the finance ministry, the government might prefer a person who could bridge this gap.
A K Bhattacharya lists three reasons why Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will most likely present a full Budget on February 1, 2019.
Pawar said, "I will meet PM Narendra Modi on July 18. During the meeting, I will take up various issues related to farmers with him. (NCP leader) Praful Patel and I will attend the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting."
Senior bureaucrats say the government has planned a 'feel-good' Budget after the 'pain' of demonetisation.
The Election Commission will hold the 2019 general election under Arora .
Officials asked what the point was in going through banks when the government has to give guarantees.
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