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.
The Supreme Court of India has struck down key provisions of the 2021 Tribunals Reforms law, citing violations of separation of powers and judicial independence. The court restored earlier directions on tenure for tribunal members.
'The trade deficit in some sectors is huge and that is an area of opportunity to localise.'
Two-wheeler (2W) major Bajaj Auto on Friday posted its highest ever quarterly revenue and profit during the third quarter of 2025-26 (Q3FY26). Bajaj Auto's consolidated net profit for the quarter grew by 25 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 2,749 crore, with the revenue also growing 23 per cent to Rs 16,204 crore.
India's retail inflation, which has stayed below the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) 4 per cent target in recent times, is likely to remain benign in the coming months, RBI Deputy Governor Poonam Gupta said in a speech, on Friday, which was uploaded on the central bank's website on Tuesday. Headline inflation dipped to multi-year lows of around 1.5-2.8 per cent in late 2025.
'The next two to three weeks will not be decided in Washington.' 'They will be decided in Tehran, in whatever calculation Iran makes about the costs of continued resistance against the costs of appearing to have yielded.'
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is promoting India as a global hub for digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence, highlighting the government's incentives for data center investments and inviting the world's data to reside in India.
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.
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.
Rural India outpaced urban centres in passenger vehicle sales in 2025, recording a growth of 12 per cent compared with 8 per cent in cities.
Filing a belated return is far better than not filing at all.
Shares of brokerage-related companies nosedived 18 per cent on Sunday after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed raising securities transaction tax on commodity futures to 0.05 per cent from 0.02 per cent in the Union Budget 2026-27.
'Except for extremely conservative investors, others can consider allocating 10 to 20 per cent of their portfolio to small caps.'
Trade deals ease risks for Indian equities, but weak demand and stretched valuations raise questions over whether optimism -- especially in smallcaps -- can turn into a sustained bull run, points out Debashis Basu.
Private sector lender IDFC First Bank has lowered its savings account rates and introduced new slabs for small and medium balance categories, effective January 9, 2025, as per its website. The interest slabs and rates for higher balance accounts remain unchanged. Despite the revision, the bank continues to offer one of the highest savings account interest rates in the industry among mid-sized banks.
The government may take the first step towards fiscal consolidation in Budget 2010-11 by partially rolling back tax cuts given to the industry last year. The service tax rate may be restored to 12 per cent, while excise duty could be increased marginally.
The government may take the first step towards fiscal consolidation in Budget 2010-11 by partially rolling back tax cuts given to the industry last year. The service tax rate may be restored to 12 per cent, while excise duty could be increased marginally.
The SC has gone a step further to state that even if one were to not apply the codified GAAR provisions, the judicial GAAR would continue to apply, point out Pranav Sayta and Bhargav Selarka.
The key question is how much of the latest growth record represents recovery from the 2020-2021 downturn, and what is the sustainable growth rate now, asks T N Ninan.
'LIC will reduce but not fully exit its stake in IDBI Bank, which remains an important bancassurance partner,' says LIC of India' MD and CEO R Doraiswamy.
Service tax waived for online train ticket booking till Dec 31
Capex, infrastructure development, and prudent fiscal management are the key focus areas in the Budget, says Nilesh Shah.
rediffGURU T S Khurana answers readers' personal income tax queries
The proposed 'Next Gen GST' with sweeping reforms, lower tax rates, and just two slabs, aims to boost the economy amid tariff threats and set the stage for a single tax rate regime by the time India becomes a developed nation, government sources said.
The department found that Microsoft India's Gurgoan unit carried out marketing activities for its India operations and not for the Singapore unit as it had claimed in its reply to a show cause notice served by the department earlier. Microsoft officials, however, said they have not received any official communication from the tax department in this regard.
Industry body Assocham on Monday said service tax is likely to fetch Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) by 2010 if government doubles the existing service tax list of 72 items.
Ahead of the passage of the Finance Bill in Parliament, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh is understood to have shot off a letter to the Finance Ministry protesting the proposal on the grounds that the move would not only hit passengers but spell more trouble for the airlines which were already reeling under severe financial stress.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, is locked in a legal battle with the Service Tax (ST) department, which has demanded an amount of Rs 536 crore (approx) as taxes on cricket board's earnings from royalty and media rights in the last one decade.
Amendments to RBI Act likely soon
Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty dived sharply by nearly 2 per cent on Sunday after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a hike in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on derivatives. Reversing the early gains, the 30-share BSE Sensex plunged sharply by 2,370.36 points or 2.88 per cent to slide below the 80,000-mark at 79,899.42 in afternoon trade as the finance minister announced a hike in STT on futures contracts to 0.05 per cent from the current 0.02 per cent.
In a furious post on his blog, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Tuesday slammed the Congress for allegedly using the Excise Department to impose a tax on the mammoth rallies addressed by the saffron party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
India has managed high government debt-to-GDP, a slowing domestic revenue engine, lower household savings and a more hostile geopolitical environment separately in the past. But together, they threaten to undo the growth narrative on which today's optimism rests, warns Debashis Basu.
No one appeared for Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines on Friday.
Central Board of Excise and Customs chairman V Sridhar has also said the realty sector would not attract 10 per cent service tax in effect.
Budget likely to list tax-exempt items as finance ministry, states agree
