'Not paying workers enough will end up being self-destructive or harmful for the corporate sector itself.'
Hospitality players want the government to accord infrastructure status to hotels to make investments on new properties more attractive rather than categorising them as luxury or even 'sin goods' in the upcoming Union Budget considering the sector's potential to play a key role in India's growth. They also want the government to consider incentives in the form of tax breaks or subsidies for adopting sustainable and eco-friendly practices, while asserting that the upcoming budget must accelerate the tourism agenda saying it is an opportunity to make Indian hospitality the emerging engine for GDP growth and employment generation.
The finance minister, in her Budget speech, should focus more on what she is directly responsible for, rather than on programmes where her role is largely supportive, notes Nitin Desai.
Standard Chartered Bank is setting up an international banking unit primarily to look after Indian company requirements. The bank is looking for a $2-billion loan book in the first five years of business.
Companies making larger profits are now paying a lower rate of effective tax because of concessions
The draft Direct Taxes Code unveiled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday proposes raising the tax exemption limit on savings to Rs 3 lakh.
'Till the BJP does not understand Kejriwal they cannot win Delhi.'
The country's largest airline IndiGo on Friday saw its profit after tax slide 18.3 per cent to Rs 2,448.8 crore in the three months ended December 2024 due to foreign exchange loss even as revenue jumped on higher capacity and passenger traffic. The carrier, which had a fleet of 437 planes at the end of December, is planning to induct wet leased planes for long range flights and expects the number of grounded aircraft to come down to 40s by the start of next financial year from the current level of 60s.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director (MD) Gita Gopinath has condemned the "terrible and disturbing" incident of rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata. "Personally, it is terrible to have any event of this kind. It is disturbing," she told Business Standard in New Delhi.
The government on Tuesday announced certain incentives as part of efforts to boost maintenance, repair and overhaul activities in the country's aviation and shipping sectors. India is one of the fastest growing domestic aviation markets in the world.
'We will start reaching out to researchers, academics, and experts on AI from top universities and companies from across the world.'
Highlights of the announcements made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the reduction in corporate tax and other fiscal relief measures for the economy to promote growth and investment.
Driven by smartphone, electronics exports have reached $22.5 billion in value in the first eight months of the current financial year (FY25), a near 28 per cent growth over the $17.66 billion electronics exports during the corresponding period of FY24.
Tax deduction limit up Rs 50K for investment in pension fund.
Face Rs 1,000-cr minimum alternate tax demand
India Inc on Thursday pitched for lowering income tax burden on common man, increase in capital expenditure, and firm steps to contain food inflation in their nearly two-hour long interaction with finance minister Nirmala Shitharaman ahead of the Union Budget. During pre-Budget consultation with Sitharaman, the industry leaders and associations also urged the government to focus more on infrastructure development with a view to maintaining the economic growth momentum. The industry leaders also laid stress on boosting the MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprises) sector, considered a backbone of the Indian economy and main employment generator.
Obama to push for expansion of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.
Dabur's pre-quarterly update for Q3FY25 disappointed the market with the share dropping by 3.9 per cent. Growth was slower than expected and inflation hit margins. The management said that the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) consumption in rural markets was resilient and continued to grow faster than in urban markets.
The new scheme may link the incentives to the battery power - higher the power, higher the incentive and most electric two-wheelers running on Indian roads use low power and fast charging batteries.
Feature for feature, bank FDs are indeed better than debt funds today, mainly thanks to Ms Sitharaman, notes Debashis Basu.
The Budget should use the extra RBI surplus to better effect, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
With India's EV penetration at just 2.5 per cent, the market presents an opportunity -- provided Tesla gets its pricing right.
The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry on Wednesday said the states and union territories (UTs) will provide up to 25 per cent rebate on road tax for vehicles that are purchased after scrapping old vehicles under the new National Automobile Scrappage Policy. The ministry in a press note said that in the vehicle scrapping policy, it is proposed to have a system of incentives to nudge vehicle owners to discard old and polluting vehicles. "As an incentive for scrapping, concession is stipulated in the motor vehicle tax for a vehicle registered against submission of Certificate of Deposit, which is issued by a Registered Vehicle Scrapping Facility.
'At present, hybrids emit lesser carbon despite using fuel than pure play electric cars.' 'That is because EVs have to be charged and 76 per cent of the country's electricity is still coal-based and not renewables.'
The government wants new domestic companies to set up their manufacturing units fast and hence the concessional tax rate of 15 per cent has been extended by a year till March 2024, revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Friday. Stating that direct and indirect tax collections are going up and have good buoyancy, Bajaj said it means that the corporate sector is also doing well, and India's tax to GDP ratio could be "highest ever" in the current year. The Budget 2022-23 presented on February 1 has proposed that the concessional 15 per cent corporate tax rate would be available for one more year till March 2024 for newly incorporated manufacturing units.
The regulations will only apply to the share purchases that have been done after October 1, 2004
Overall market reaction to the Budget was neutral. Investors absorbed the changes to the tax rates (positive for salaried class) and capital gains taxes (CGTs, negative due to the removal of indexation and increases. Other proposals largely pertain to supporting rural development, buybacks taxed as dividends, Custom duty changes that impact multiple sectors, higher outlays for clean energy, etc. There's some moderation in the growth of capex outlay across defence, fer
Finance ministers of states demanded an increase in allocation under 50-year interest-free loan scheme, while fiscally stressed states like Punjab and Kerala pitched for a special package and borrowing flexibility, sources said on Friday. In a pre-budget meeting with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, states have also urged for higher borrowing limits to support fiscal activities, besides additional funds for Jal Jeevan Mission.
The govt could allow start-ups and e-commerce cos to appropriate initial brand building expenses over several years for accounting benefits
Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) of India has urged the Centre to extend lower corporate tax benefit to Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) and proprietary firms as it would make funds available with MSMEs and boost private investment cycle. A body of direct tax professionals also sought for reduction of tax burden on individuals and requested the government to raise the income tax exemption limit at Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per annum in the upcoming budget for 2022-23 fiscal. EEPC India chairman Mahesh Desai claimed around 84 per cent of small businesses are being denied the benefit of lower corporate tax which was aimed at providing industrial units with more investible surplus.
Anand Sharma working tirelessly for extension of tax breaks that expired on March 31, 2010.
Many promoters still consider the cash in the company as their money and are averse to sharing this pie with minority investors, points out Akash Prakash.
A major fire broke out in Britannia Industries' Pantnagar manufacturing plant on Sunday destroying thousands of tons of biscuits. However, no one was killed or injured in the fire which broke out around 1230 hours in the biscuit division of the factory, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Udhamsingh Nagar (district) Manjunath T C told Business Standard after the firefighters put the fire out. "With the help of 15-20 fire tenders, we were able to control the fire which was very major," Manjunath said.
The incentive package being offered by the government of West Bengal for the Tata Motors for setting up the small car project in Singur would take into account the concessions offered by the Uttaranchal government for the project in that state.
Industry body CII on Thursday made a case for pushing reforms in sectors like land, labour, and agriculture by the Modi 3.0 government to accelerate economic growth, which is estimated to be around 8 per cent in the current financial year. CII president Sanjiv Puri said a lot of policy interventions in the past have put the economy on "a much stronger wicket". "The growth rate is poised to touch 8 per cent during the current year, marking the fourth consecutive year of above 7 per cent + growth.
The Budget proposals are expected to boost the fortunes of consumer goods and fast-moving consumer goods companies, which have been struggling with poor consumer demand for more than a year. The Budget announcements, such as the increase in standard deduction by Rs 25,000 for income-tax payers and slab revisions, will put more money in their hands, boosting consumer demand. Private consumption is also likely to benefit from a new scheme to offer internships to 10 million youths in the country's top 500 companies.
The dispute arose after Nissan alleged that Tamil Nadu hadn't paid certain incentives under a 2008 agreement to set up a car plant at Oragadam, near Chennai.
Finance ministry lines up major plans to be implemented within three months.
If one compares returns, the two public-sector ETFs have done better over the past year, but the ELSS category has done better over the trailing three and five years.