The move to resume work in ministries comes nearly a month after the government issued work from home protocols in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Real estate developers are hoping that the slew of tax concessions announced in Union Budget 2025, set to take effect this financial year, will spur demand for affordable and mid-segment housing, even as the broader housing market shows signs of fatigue.
Shaktikanta Das will demit the office on Tuesday after completing six years as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra will replace him as the 26th Governor. He was appointed as the Governor on December 12, 2018, after the abrupt exit of Urjit Patel.
Ahead of the Union Budget, the banking sector, through the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), has made recommendations to the Union finance ministry on direct tax, including removing Section 194N of the Income Tax Act. According to Section 194N, tax deduction at source (TDS) has to be done if a sum or sums withdrawn in cash by a person in a fiscal year exceed Rs 20 lakh if no income-tax return (ITR) has been filed for the three previous assessment years, and Rs 1 crore if ITRs have been filed in all the three previous assessment years.
But the government will present a second tranche of Supplementary Demands for Grants during the Budget session of Parliament in February, when it can seek additional spending.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the government will arrange identity cards and registration on the e-Shram portal to assist 1 crore gig workers. Presenting the Union Budget 2025-26, the finance minister also said a scheme for the socio-economic upliftment of urban workers will be implemented.
'Mrs Gandhi had nothing to do in the day-to-day working of Dr Singh's government.' 'People say Mrs Gandhi's office used to give orders, which is nonsense.'
Finance Ministry had earlier lowered interest rate to 8.7 per cent for 2015-16.
A couple from Mumbai who recently shifted to Kerala has received Rs 15.31 crore from an anonymous donor to purchase a life-saving drug for the treatment of their 16-month-old son.
The government, it would seem, is reserving its firepower to spend on big-ticket items that will be announced in the Budget, reports Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
Startup founders need to sit up and think about how not to take stardom for granted and how not to disappoint their fans who have stood in long queues for those precious selfies with popular entrepreneurs, notes Nivedita Mookerji.
Prospects of a bumper kharif harvest are expected to lower food inflation in the coming months, making the country's inflation outlook benign, the Union Ministry of Finance (FinMin) said in its monthly economic report for October released on Monday.
Thrust on infrastructure and capital expenditure is expected to continue in the Union Budget for FY25.
The preparations for the next Budget have already started.
The Union finance ministry will meet CEOs of public sector banks to discuss issues related to cybersecurity in the wake of the Rs 820 crore (Rs 8.2 billion) fraud that hit Kolkata-based UCO Bank last month.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday maintained that he will speak, if necessary, on the finance ministry note on 2G spectrum allocation issue only after talking to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.
In a significant policy shift aimed at boosting agri-productivity and rural prosperity, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced six new agricultural schemes while increasing the subsidised Kisan Credit Card loan limit to Rs 5 lakh from the existing Rs 3 lakh, benefiting 7.7 crore farmers, fishermen, and dairy farmers.
So how do you rate the Modi government's 11th budget?
UPI-related frauds have accounted for a cumulative loss of Rs 2,145 crore across 2.7 million reported incidents.
'If the BJP detoxifies the nuclear liability law, it will bring economic, environmental and, most of all, strategic benefits.' 'Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that this Budget promise is met soon -- ideally, before Mr Modi heads to his first meeting with Trump 2.0,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Budget for 2024-25 should focus on employment generation, besides promoting the manufacturing sector, economists attending the pre-Budget consultation meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Wednesday said. The meeting was attended by National Co-convenor Swadeshi Jagran Manch Ashwani Mahajan, Director and Chief Executive of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID) Nagesh Kumar, and TCA Anant among others.
Nationalist Congress Party leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday didn't join his cabinet colleagues Devendra Fadnavis and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in visiting the Nagpur-based memorial of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder.
The West Bengal state government has delayed project approvals. And now, the IT giants may look at other states as the centre is thinking of giving sops to SEZs
In FY24 alone, 1.34 million fraud cases were reported, amounting to losses of Rs 1,087 crore.
The annual Finance Bill may soon become far less exciting as the government plans to lift the veil of secrecy surrounding tax proposals in Budget. Once the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) and Goods and Services Tax (GST) are in place, the finance ministry will adopt a public discussion approach for most future decisions, while confining the annual exercise to a few procedural changes.
Union Tourism Minister Shripad Naik on Friday said that having Arvind Mayaram as the new secretary in the ministry would be of great help.
Structural reforms, pro-people programmes and employment opportunities helped the economy get new vigour, the finance minister said. After contracting by 5.8 per cent in 2020-21, the economy recorded a growth of 9.1 per cent in 2021-22.
The government on Wednesday extended the tenure of Enforcement Directorate Director Sanjay Kumar Mishra by a year till November 18, 2022, days after the Centre brought ordinances to allow ED and Central Bureau of Investigation directors to occupy the office for up to five years.
RBI may think twice before agreeing with suggestions of a rate cut.
It would be interesting to see how fast the finance ministry allocates money to the state.
The health sector has been allocated Rs 89,155 crore in the Union Budget 2023-24, a hike of around 13 per cent over Rs 79,145 crore allocated in 2022-23, with the government also announcing a mission to eliminate sickle cell anaemia by 2047.
'The finance ministry's decision to accept the deficit target of 4.5 per cent in 2025-2026 appears to have emanated from its endorsement of the Finance Commission's view that the Indian economy will continue to remain impacted by the pandemic, adversely undermining its growth potential,' notes A K Bhattacharya.
Unlike the finance ministry which takes a larger view, the commerce ministry only looks at exporters' interests.
A proposal in the Union Budget 2022-23 to raise excise duty on dirtier, unblended retail petrol and diesel has met with some resistance from the petroleum ministry. However, finance ministry officials say no such communication arguing against the levy of extra duty on diesel has been received from the oil ministry. Until there are discussions between the two departments, the proposal will not be tweaked in the Finance Bill. The Rs 2 per litre additional excise duty proposed on unblended fuels in the Finance Bill will result in a uniform hike of diesel prices across the country from October 1.
A higher level of private sector financing and resource mobilisation from new sources will be crucial for India to build quality infrastructure, according to the Economic Survey 2023-24. The Economic Survey 2023-24 was tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday.
Owing to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman being new to her role, a number of crucial announcements in the Budget bore Garg's imprint, especially the decision to borrow in overseas markets, reduce the fiscal deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product, and resort to off-Budget borrowing to meet that target, says Arup Roychoudury.
In the pre-budget Economic Survey 2010-11, the Union finance ministry made a strong pitch for the pro-growth impact of investment in human capital adding, "fortunately, there is awareness of this in India and efforts are afoot in terms of budgetary allocation and actual initiatives to boost the development of skill and human capital."
The clarification comes in wake of media reports that Finance Ministry is contemplating to merge the Railway and General budgets and change the financial year.
The Indian government will present the annual budget for 2016-17 on February 29.
A 5 per cent GST rate kicked in on Monday on pre-packed and labelled food items such as cereals, pulses and flour weighing less than 25 kg.
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