The government has decided to issue biometric PAN (Permanent Account Number) cards to taxpayers across the country to weed out the problem of duplicate and fake ones.
The Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings (COPU) expressed serious concern over outsourcing of printing of Indian currency notes amounting to Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) to three countries in 1997-98 and said that such a tendency would put India's economic sovereignty at stake.
A freebie once granted can hardly be discontinued. All that can happen is to substitute it with a bigger freebie, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Maharashtra minister Dada Bhuse said the decision to impose export duty should have been taken with proper coordination.
As persources, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das will represent India at the 2-day event to be hosted in Islamabad from August 25-26.
Currently, Railways is facing a loss of Rs 34,000 cr in passenger segment and its earnings are falling.
As part of the ritual, ''halwa'' is prepared in a big ''kadhai'' (large frying pot) and served to the entire staff involved in the Budget making exercise of the ministry. Halwa was served while maintaining COVID protocol with all present in mask and those distributing sweets were wearing gloves.
With the fiscal deficit target staring at the government, the FY25 Budget has limited expenditure options, points out A K Bhattacharya.
TDS has been successfully used for direct taxes like the income tax.
The department of economic affairs in the Union finance ministry has suggested aggressive sterilisation of foreign capital inflows, tightening of government expenditure and intervention in key farm produce markets like wheat.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has stated that backward state of Assam and the Northeast region as a while need more fund from the Centre instead of frequent visits of Union ministers, a new and unprecedented trend since Independence.
Coming Wednesday, Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman will present the 2023 Union Budget - the last full Budget ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. While India exited 2022 as a relatively bright spot in the global economy, the FM will endeavour to present a Budget that insulates India's economy against global headwinds and recession in advanced economies, while sticking to the path of fiscal consolidation. In this, she is being helped by her core team of trusted advisors.
May dilute stakes in PSUs to 90% instead of big-bang approach
In a major embarrassment to the Congress-led United Democratic Frontn government in Kerala, state Finance Minister K M Mani was on Thursday booked by the vigilance and anti-corruption bureau in the bar bribe scam.
The 8.1 per cent interest rate was recommended by the Central Board of Trustees after its meeting in Guwahati under the chairmanship of Union Labour and Employment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, a labour ministry press statement said.
The GST, an indirect tax regime, is to be rolled out from April 2016.
The ministry has also advised the Reserve Bank of India to make provisions for immediate relief in the affected areas.
The Unified Pension System (UPS), approved by the Union Cabinet on Saturday, is "fiscally prudent" as it will be funded within the Centre's fiscal projections, according to T V Somanathan, the Cabinet Secretary-designate. Speaking to Business Standard immediately after the Cabinet nod, former finance secretary Somanathan, who headed the committee set up in March 2023 to review the National Pension System (NPS), said the UPS will not postpone pension expenditure as it will be contributory and financed each year.
A recent decision of the high court in Chennai on the levy of service tax on software sale has made the Union finance ministry hopeful of a similar verdict in the case of copyright services.
Union Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma said on Tuesday that the Central Board of Trustees would be meeting on May 31 at New Delhi for reviewing the interest rate of employees provident fund.
'The vision now is not just to look at national highways as a number of kilometres, but quality as well.'
With a rising proportion of Non-Performing Assets in education loans, banks have approached the government, seeking protection in the form of a credit guarantee fund of at least Rs 2,500 crore.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her sixth straight Budget ahead of the Parliamentary elections, matching the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Sitharaman in her pre-election Budget, which technically is a vote on account and popularly termed an interim Budget, will seek Parliament's nod for a grant in advance to meet the central government's essential expenditure for the first four months of the new fiscal year that starts in April. A new government elected after the April/May general elections will present the full Budget, likely in July.
Finance Secretary Hasmukh Adhia vacates his post on November 30 and Expenditure Secretary Ajay Narayan Jha, the second seniormost bureaucrat in the finance ministry, retires on January 31, the day before Jaitley presents the 2019-20 interim budget.
It is also likely to assume a deflator of around 4 per cent. That could take the nominal GDP outlook for FY21 to around 10 per cent. It is this nominal GDP forecast on the basis of which the finance ministry is calculating key Budget targets like the fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP and tax revenue growth for the coming year.
Unlike the previous visit, where TDP MPs accompanied Naidu to meetings, sources termed the current visit as "low profile", with one-on-one meetings with key Union ministers.
If things go according to the plans of the Indian government, Mumbai may rob Belgium's Antwerp, currently the world's top diamond destination, of its priced position.
Structural changes to government finances could be focus of the Union Budget, says Mihir S Sharma.
Jaitley, 66, has become 'very weak' as his health has deteriorated over the past few weeks, sources said, adding that he has developed some throat condition as well that prevents him from speaking for long.
This followed a notification from the Union Finance Ministry asking it to "investigate, countrywide, the entire episode of mass circulation of fake revenue stamps."
The monthly Rs 2500 payment for poor women is expected to cost Rs 11,000 crore while the pension scheme of Rs 2000 for every senior citizen will cost around Rs 4100 crore. The Yamuna clean up will cost over Rs 10,000 crore while a similar amount is required to upgrade Delhi's hospitals. Ultimately, the new BJP government will have no choice but to ask the centre for financial support, notes Rashme Sehgal.
The sources claimed that one of those arrested is believed to be Arsh Dalla, who is associated with the banned Khalistan Tiger Force and ran terror modules on behalf of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a designated terrorist who was killed in June last year.
As the government is busy preparing Budget, the Army on Thursday sought more funds for the force, saying this would help in its modernisation process.
The L-G will take decisions on police, officers of all-India services such as the IAS and the IPS, and giving sanction for prosecution in various cases.
India has reduced the time period for foreign investors to seek international arbitration from five years to three years as part of the recently signed investment pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a departure from its model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). Under the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, if the Indian judicial system is unable to resolve a dispute within this shortened period, investors can resort to international arbitration. The investment pact, signed on February 13 in Abu Dhabi, came into force on August 31, replacing the previous pact.
