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.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
Analysts believe the GST could boost India's economic growth by up to 2 percentage points
The Indian economy needs to generate an average of nearly 78.5 lakh jobs annually until 2030 in the non-farm sector to cater to the rising workforce, according to the Economic Survey for 2023-24. The Survey tabled in Parliament on Monday also laid emphasis on the private sector's role to create employment in the country saying "In more than one respect, the action lies with the private sector. "In terms of financial performance, the corporate sector has never had it so good."
Construction costs would be reduced to some extent and this benefit can be passed on to the customers, thereby spurring home buying
DTC task force also favoured doing away with Dividend Distribution Tax by suggesting taxing dividends in the hands of shareholders.
The Budget should use the extra RBI surplus to better effect, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
The implementation of the GST will indeed be a landmark reform.
Rising energy demand could tilt India's energy basket towards fossil fuels from coal to oil, natural gas.
While the ratio determines the extent to which the government is able to finance its expenditure, it is also an indicator of tax compliance. Developed countries have a higher contribution of tax to their GDP.
"The emphasis is on making every rule, law, policy people-centric, and public-friendly. This is the use of the new governance model and the country is getting its results," Prime Minister Modi said while speaking at the launch of a platform for 'Transparent Taxation -- Honoring the Honest'.
'Any finality in such matters requires political views. We will review it closer to the full Budget.'
As far as possible, investment in the agriculture sector must be from the government, and not the private sector, states Santushti Raj Thapar.
The remarkable feature of those reforms unveiled in 1991 is that none of those decisions has been disowned by subsequent governments in the last 25 years.
Kamala Harris used her forceful presidential acceptance speech to present herself as a leader who could unite the country to chart a 'new way forward' and warned Americans of 'extremely serious' consequences of putting her Republican rival Donald Trump back in the White House.
All eyes will be on whether Sitharaman will deliver a populist budget leaving more money in hands of the common man or push the reform agenda by staying on the fiscal glide path to lower the fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26.
'Till the time you have the equations right the market will remain concerned.' 'If the (coalition) government is taken care of, then probably (the markets will) come back to its rhythm.'
Government unlikely to bring in an ordinance to address the developments arising out of the Supreme Court order.
'China is struggling to get out of its property bubble.' 'Japan took 35 years to walk out of its equity bubble.' 'Bubbles can be difficult to forecast.'
The climate for 'doing business' remains forbidding, taxtortion is still rife, corruption at state and district levels has increased, oil prices remain extortive with high taxation, and the continued red tape has kept the enterprise system as stifled as before, points out Debashis Basu.
Announcing his tax reforms Trump said his policies would benefit working families.
The Sensex posted its biggest single-day jump in over a decade at 1,921 points and investors' wealth soared by a staggering Rs 6.8 lakh crore after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered a surprise cut in corporate tax rates on Friday.
The challenge is to convince productive sectors that a lower general rate would benefit all and remove the prevalent system of favours targeted towards narrow industry and service sector groups.
Among parties, the NCP stood out with five of its MPs raising an average of 410 questions each. On the other hand, two Apna Dal (Soneylal) raised only five questions each on average.
Government will lay greater emphasis on social sectors, finance minister said.
What is most troubling is that not a single party that is part of INDIA has talked about any kind of reform and economic sense, argues R Jagannathan.
A government that confuses PowerPoints for policy is delaying structural change too much.
'I am shocked that the BJP makes so many commitments. What did they deliver as the NDA?'
'Sin tax' is a globally prevalent practice under which products like alcohol and tobacco attract higher rates of tax.
About 82 per cent of the total income from unknown sources declared by national political parties in 2022-23 came from electoral bonds, according to a poll rights body.
The representation of women in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls continues to remain dismally low, as only about 12 percent of the candidates in the fray in the fifth phase are female, according to an analysis by poll rights body ADR.
A staggering $18 trillion worth unaccounted money is stashed in tax havens.
'Traders must adopt digital payments as soon as possible within a set timeframe, as the nation is moving rapidly towards digitisation.' 'Ignoring digital systems is not an option for strengthening trade.'
Mumbai accounts for the largest share of electoral bonds sold since inception.
'If the NDA comes to power with 320-330 plus seats, then we could see some correction. We could possibly see a level of 19,500 to 20,000.' 'If the NDA comes to power with a majority of 400-plus, we could see the markets going to about 23,500-24,000 levels.' 'And from there we could see some correction because markets are expensive at this point of time and a correction is overdue.'
GST seeks to subsume many indirect taxes at the Central and state levels.
ArthaKranti wants the government to abolish income tax and 56 other taxes and replace it by a banking transaction tax.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on his maiden visit as minister to Washington, DC, addresses two think thanks, leaves American Establishment impressed, reports Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com.
He said, clothing, footwear and electronic sectors are large job creators and need big reforms.
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