India's Code on Wages mandates strict payout deadlines, two-day full and final settlements, universal wage coverage and capped deductions to safeguard employees and enhance payroll transparency nationwide.
The levy had to come into effect from April 1. It would now be in force from July 1.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised down India's GDP growth forecast for fiscal year 2026-27 (FY27) to 6.6 per cent from an earlier 6.9 per cent, primarily attributing the change to elevated energy prices stemming from the Middle East conflict. Despite this moderation, India is still expected to remain the world's fastest-growing major economy.
The Labour and Employment Ministry has requested the Finance Ministry to keep Employee State Insurance and Employee State Insurance schemes out of the ambit of service tax as they are social security schemes.
Meerut police have uncovered a Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud involving crores of rupees, leading to the arrest of one individual. The investigation revealed a network of fake firms used to illegally claim input tax credits, causing significant losses to the government.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee included some more services within the service tax ambit in the Budget 2009-10.
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.
A firm, which managed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hugely successful Lok Sabha campaign, has come under the scanner of revenue authorities for alleged service tax evasion.
On the lines of the proposed Direct Taxes Code (DTC), the government plans to come out with a Common Tax Code (CTC) for service tax and central excise duty to harmonise the two indirect levies.
A BA spokesperson maintained that the airline 'has not evaded any taxes.' The revenue department had in July served service tax notice on the airline for payment of balance out of the Rs 143.5 crore (Rs 1.43 billion) liability on tickets sales in India between May 2006 and November 2007, but BA did not pay the amount.
A shift appears underway in India's tax landscape. States with relatively smaller tax collections like Odisha and Telangana are emerging as the fastest-growing contributors to indirect and direct tax collections, respectively.
The on-going search operation started a fortnight back in which the evasion by firms providing real estate services, including renting and other collaborations was detected, official sources said.
Electronic filing of service tax will be made compulsory in the next two months," CBEC member Y G Parande told reporters on the sidelines of a PHD chamber seminar.
With the Union Budget three months away, major industry chambers have submitted to the government proposals on common taxes, seeking simpler compliance and a quicker resolution of tax disputes.
India is a global leader in software development services, IT enabled services, knowledge process outsourcing services and contract R&D services relating to software development, Sitharaman said noting these business segments are quite inter-connected with each other.
Fino Payments Bank's MD and CEO, Rishi Gupta, has been arrested for violating Goods and Services Tax laws, prompting the appointment of Ketan Merchant as the interim head.
Tata Motors' commercial vehicle (CV) business is strategically repositioning itself from a traditional truck manufacturer to a comprehensive logistics and mobility platform, aiming to reduce dependence on cyclical vehicle demand by accelerating growth in digital, international, and services segments.
Contribution of the service sector in the GDP is 56 per cent but the share of the service tax in the GDP is just 1.1 per cent, Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customes P C Jha said in a interaction meeting organised bythe Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce on Friday night.
'The real Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata are the citizens of our country.' 'The Delhi government will make the film tax-free in the city so that every citizen is able to watch it.'
Not a single retail outlet ran dry. Every household that wanted a cylinder got one. India faced neither a 1991 moment nor a 2013 one. Macroeconomic stability held. This was not an accident, and it was not luck alone. It was the work of a government that chose to act as it had during the pandemic -- deliberately and gradually, building one measure upon another rather than reaching for a single dramatic lever, explains V Anantha Nageswaran, chief economic advisor to the Government of India.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reduced India's growth forecast for FY27 to 6.4 per cent, citing the potential impact of higher energy prices offsetting the country's economic resilience. Despite this, India remains among the fastest-growing major economies.
Stocks to watch: Container Corp, Snowman Logistics & Transport Corp
The other two components of indirect tax collections -- excise and customs duties -- were already in negative territory since October 2008. In particular, excise -- a levy on factory production levied at the gates - has started declining from September.
The Reserve Bank of India's Financial Stability Report indicates that the interim peace deal between the US and Iran has favourably shifted the balance of risks, reducing headwinds from the West Asia conflict. However, it cautions that exchange rate volatility could increase if crude oil prices spike due to delayed normalisation of supply chain disruptions.
Increased input costs due to geopolitical conflict in West Asia and unseasonal rain in March negatively impacted volumes of consumer durables makers, particularly air conditioners, in Q4FY26, leading to projected declines in EBITDA and APAT despite revenue growth.
The Delhi High Court has directed the GST Council to consider lowering or abolishing the goods and services tax on air purifiers, citing worsening air quality in the national capital. The court has asked the council to meet at the earliest, even via video conference if necessary, to address the issue.
Last week, Railway Minister Mukul Roy had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is now looking after the Finance portfolio, requesting him not to introduce service tax on passenger fare and freight traffic from July 1.
Nomura has increased its March 2027 target for the Nifty 50 to 25,900, driven by strong corporate earnings and attractive market valuations, even as risks from the West Asia conflict and high oil prices persist.
The Union Budget on Sunday proposed a tax holiday till 2047 for foreign companies that provide cloud services to customers globally using data centres located in India, signalling the government's push to make the country a major hub for AI and digital infrastructure.
Service tax collection is likely to cross the Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) mark this fiscal, far exceeding the target of Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion), a senior Finance Ministry official said on Thursday.
Revenue from service tax, which has become a new focus area for Finance Ministry, has grown up substantially by over 300 times in past about two decades.
Official sources said such norms form the benchmark of costing, which helps in working out the price of inputs required for manufacturing or producing a certain quantity of output.
Veena T, daughter of former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate in Kochi for questioning regarding a money laundering case involving her defunct IT firm, Exalogic Solutions Private Ltd, and mining company CMRL. The probe focuses on alleged payments made without services and loans extended despite repayment failures, leading to accusations of generating "proceeds of crime."
India's GST revenues experienced significant growth in March, reaching pre-tax cut levels, driven by increased imports and domestic sales. The report analyses the impact of tax rate changes and provides insights into future trends and economic stability.
The Adani Group-owned Navi Mumbai International Airport is slated to commence international passenger and freighter operations from July 15. This marks a significant expansion for the airport, which began domestic services last December. Air India Express and IndiGo are expected to operate international flights, with customs readiness reviews already completed. The airport anticipates a substantial increase in daily passenger footfall and air traffic movements by the year-end.
"There is a sharp jump that we have seen in bookings of EVs... The jump, at least in our case, in just two months, it is about 2 to 2.5 times of what it used to be"
