Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday raised the personal income tax rebate limit, doled out sops on small savings and announced one of the biggest hikes in capital spending in the past decade as she did a tight rope walk in the Budget between staying fiscally prudent and meeting public expectations in the year before general elections.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will have to do a tight-rope walk between staying fiscally prudent and general public expectations of lower taxes and a wider social security net, while at the same time firing the engines of the economy before general elections. Sitharaman will on Wednesday present her fifth straight Budget at a time when the economy is slowing due to global headwinds and specific sectors need attention. In the run-up to the Budget presentation, expectations are rife that she may tweak income-tax slabs to provide relief to the middle class and increase spending on the poor through programmes such as the rural job scheme while ramping up financial incentives for local manufacturing.
There are no major announcements in the Union Budget 2014-15.
Special economic zones dedicated to the infotech sector may receive a body blow if the tax exemptions provided to Software Technology Parks of India under Section 10(A) and 10(B) of the Income Tax Act are extended beyond March 31, 2009. According to a senior central government official, not more than half of the nearly 100 notified infotech SEZs will survive if the tax sops are extended.
As severe cyclonic storm 'Remal' initiated its landfall process between the coasts of Bangladesh and adjoining West Bengal on Sunday evening, authorities took swift action, evacuating over 1 lakh people from vulnerable areas of the state to safety.
The Individual tax payer exemption limit to be raised to Rs 200,000 from Rs 180,000.
'Companies like Tesla and others have been given a long rope in India.'
The government is likely to offer a slew of tax sops to telecom operators, including asking state governments not to levy sales tax on telecom services, seven years of exemption of revenue sharing on revenues from rural subscribers, etc.
Navy officials on Monday said that the swift response by the Indian Navy's mission deployed warship INS Sumitra ensured the safe release of the hijacked vessel and its crew.
In a pre-budget meeting with revenue secretary P V Bhide, a Ficci delegation asked the finance ministry to tread with caution on rolling back the stimulus measures taken to spur growth.
The government on Tuesday indicated that forthcoming Foreign Trade Policy may grant some sops for the ailing textile sector especially exporters, who were disappointed over the Budget proposals.
The government has decided to extend the Rs 25,938-crore production-linked incentive scheme for the automotive sector by one year, Union Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey said on Tuesday. Post extension, the five-year scheme, originally in place from 2022-23 to 2026-27, will be active until 2027-28. At present, incentives are applicable under the scheme for determined sales of Advanced Automotive Technology (AAT) products (vehicles and components) manufactured in India from 1 April 2022 onwards for a period of five consecutive years.
Traders and weavers in Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi district, which is famous for hand knit carpets and hand tufted carpets, said they wanted the government to help them regain markets lost due to recession. In the wake of the global economic slowdown, small exporters are being wiped out while large exporters are striving to survive. The traders also said that the government should reconsider the taxes levied on them.
Four companies - Rajesh Exports, Hyundai Global Motors Company, Ola Electric Mobility and Reliance New Energy - are eligible for receiving benefits under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cell battery storage, the heavy industries ministry said on Thursday. The allotment was made for a total of 50 GWh of battery capacity to the four successful bidders. These firms, the ministry said, will receive incentives under India's Rs 18,100 crore programme to boost local battery cell production.
The biggest challenge before Chidambaram, who will be presenting his eighth budget, would be to keep every constituent happy, arrest decelerating economic growth and bring down fiscal deficit to committed level of 4.8 per cent of the gross domestic product.
The move is aimed at helping them reduce the interest rate on loans for purchase of commercial vehicles and free up additional capital to meet the higher capital adequacy ratio requirement. Non-banking finance companies have to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 12 per cent, which is to go up to 15 per cent from April, 2010.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the Finance Ministry to remove a flaw in the tax laws, which would help IT/ITeS SEZs, even as the government is considering relaxing rules for tax-free enclaves across sectors on sales in the domestic market.
Credit outstanding to the housing sector rose by nearly Rs 10 lakh crore in the last two fiscals to reach a record Rs 27.23 lakh crore in March this year, according to RBI's data on 'Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit'. Experts from banking and real estate sectors attributed this growth in housing credit outstanding to a strong revival in the residential property market post-COVID pandemic on pent-up demand. According to the data of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on sectoral deployment of bank credit for March 2024, the credit outstanding to the housing (including priority sector housing') stood at Rs 27,22,720 crore in March 2024, up from Rs 19,88,532 crore in March 2023, and Rs 17,26,697 crore in March 2022.
The tax authorities and insurance regulator Irda are working on the possibility of removing Service Tax on first premium.
Confederation of Indian Industry has sought higher banking exposure norms for lending to steel projects and infrastructure status to the steel industry, besides tax sops on par with special economic zones to boost the sector.
Telecom firms earning foreign exchange on incoming overseas calls, Internet services and rentals from cable networks are not entitled to duty sops under an export promotion scheme, says the government.
He also assuaged the honest people that the government will act as a friend to them so that their difficulties are eased.
Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday rejected the Kelkar panel proposal for lifting tax sops on savings, housing loans and agricultural income saying it was against the interest of vulnerable sections of society.
The supplement is scheduled to be released in the first half of April this year. Exporters were disappointed with Budget 2008-09 as it does not propose any specific measures to help them tide over the situation. In the April-January period of 2007-08, exports stood at $124.19 billion, an increase of 21.62 per cent from $102.12 billion during the year-ago period.
The top court also sought the assistance of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was present in the case, in formulating the standard operating procedure (SOP) and fixed the plea for hearing after the summer vacation in July.
A section of sugar industry has expressed dissatisfaction over the government's export incentives, saying a Rs 100 per tonne extra subsidy for mills in northern region as compared to those for coastal areas was not enough.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday held a meeting with representatives of the semiconductor industry of the US and invited them to make further investments in India. The finance minister spoke about opportunities for companies situated in Silicon Valley and about the government of India's commitment to be a reliable player in the entire semiconductor value chain with dedicated incentive for the sector in mission mode through the Indian Semiconductor Mission. Last year, the government approved a Rs 76,000-crore scheme to boost semiconductor and display manufacturing in the country in a bid to position India as a global hub for hi-tech production, and attract large chip makers.
The government on Tuesday announced incentives worth Rs 450-500 crore (Rs 4-5 bllion) for exporters encouraging them to aggressively market products in China and Japan and build on the recovery witnessed since November last year.
Indian companies are expecting generous tax incentives from the Union Budget that will help them invest more in building capacities in the coming years. While the productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) are a good start to spur local manufacturing, the government should also take steps to boost consumer demand, which is not showing encouraging signs, say chief executive officers (CEOs) of India Inc. Statistics released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shows that Indian banks had sanctioned loans worth Rs 75,558 crore in 220 new projects - a record low - in the pandemic-hit financial year ending March 2021. This is not showing any signs of a significant pick up in the last nine months of the ongoing financial year.
The minister termed the killing of CRPF personnel at Pampore as an act of 'frustration' on part of Pakistani terrorists several of whom were killed by Indian forces in past one year.
"If we continue with the polices in terms of assisting exporters . . . as long as we see those numbers climbing every month in an environment around the world where output and trade is shrinking, I think this is reassuring sign," Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said on the sidelines of a CII function in New Delhi.
Investigation has revealed that the Special Force Operation team had not followed the Standard Operating Procedure and the Rules of Engagement
To give impetus to the real estate sector, Goyal proposed to extend the period of exemption from levy of tax on notional rent on unsold inventories from one year to two years.
Concerned over the development, the security agencies reworked their strategy, especially keeping in mind the Amarnath Yatra beginning June 30.
RIL subsidiary Reliance New Energy Solar, Ola Electric, Hyundai Global Motors Company and Rajesh Exports have been approved for receiving incentives under the Rs 18,100 crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for battery manufacturing in India, sources said on Thursday. "The ministry had received bids from 10 companies with a capacity of 130 GWh. Reliance, Ola Electric, Hyundai and Rajesh Exports have qualified for ACC batteries," a source said. Other companies which had applied for the PLI scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) batteries were Lucas-TVS, Mahindra & Mahindra, Amara Raja Batteries, Exide Industries, Larsen & Toubro and India Power Corporation Limited.
While foreign direct investment is not allowed in the multi-brand retail, the organised retail stores promoted by the domestic industrial houses have been steadily growing.
A slew of sops were announced for teachers, employees of municipalities and others.
The decision to permit the third child came after this month's once-in-a-decade census showed that China's population grew at the slowest pace to 1.412 billion amid official projections that the decline may begin as early as next year.
'Rather than taking a very short-term view on the markets, equity investing should be premised on longer term growth opportunities.'
