Announcing a 96-hour country-wide strike against the value added tax system from March 29, traders' body Akhil Bharatiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal on Tuesday
Six non-BJP ruled states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Kerala and Jharkhand -- have not reduced the VAT on petroleum products, leading to higher prices of petrol and diesel there, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday. Puri said in Lok Sabha that the central government has reduced excise duty on petroleum products and some other states, following cues, reduced their Value Added Tax (VAT). Six states -- West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Kerala and Jharkhand -- have not reduced the VAT, he said amidst vocal protests by the opposition members.
The Value Added Tax system has no adverse impact on consumer prices, and revenue earnings under the new regime have shot up by 15.3 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesda
This is Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya's maiden Lok Sabha election, but political experts and voters feel he can easily win Porbandar seat in his home state Gujarat, despite the electorate facing some key issues like unemployment.
The empowered committee of state finance ministers is firm on sticking to the April 1 deadline for switching over to Value Added Tax despite the "friction" coming in the way from traders and a handful of states.
With only West Bengal sending in the draft amendments to Value-added Tax Bill, the finance ministry said on Thursday that a new roadmap will be drawn up for the implementation of the progressive tax regime, which was to be effective from June 1.
Implementation of the VAT regime, strongly favoured by the Kelkar committee on tax reforms, has been hanging fire since April this year.
Only eight out of 16 states, which have agreed to implement Value-Added Tax from June 1, have passed legislations on the issue so far, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said in Lok Sabha on Friday.
With states agreeing to implement value-added tax from April, government on Monday pegged two rates of 10 and 12.5 per cent, while assuring full compensation for any revenue loss in the first year.
In layman terms this means that in cases where buyers purchase houses before completion of construction, builders would be levied works contract tax on the building material.
In an attempt to bring uniformity in prices of medicines, Chemicals Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday asked the states to exempt them from local taxes or at least advance the implementation of value-added tax regime for drugs.
The empowered committee on value-added tax will meet the finance minister in mid-July to discuss the 'roadmap' for the introduction of the new tax regime, after which it will be taken up with political parties for a national consensus.
With less than a year left for the scheduled introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), most states have increased their VAT (value-added tax) rates. The move is seen as an attempt to extract better compensation from the Centre for loss on account of GST rollout
Petrol and diesel prices were cut by Rs 2 per litre each as state-owned oil companies ended a nearly two-year-long hiatus in rate revision, just hours before the general election schedule was announced.
At least 11 states accounting for two-third of the country's trade and industrial output are ready to introduce value-added tax from June
Sixty-eight Rajya Sabha members, including nine Union ministers, are completing their tenure this year, triggering a race of sorts among leaders across political parties to eye a six-year term in the Upper House of Parliament.
Apple Inc has announced the India prices of the new variants of its bestselling smartphones - launched on Tuesday - as it assembles the device in the country. The new iPhone 15 range starts at Rs 79,900 for the 128 GB variant (the same price as the iPhone 14 when it was launched last year) and goes up to Rs 199,900 for the top-end Pro Max with a 6.7 inch screen and 1 TB (terabyte) storage. The world's most valuable company also launched three new upgraded Apple watches, starting with the SE at Rs 29,900 and going up to Ultra 2 at Rs 89,900.
The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers has been asked to sort out some of the contentious issues on the value-added tax including the refunds on credit and exemption for exports.
Six more states are set to join the value added tax regime from April
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh will soon convene a meeting of state chief ministers to work out details for implementation of the much-delayed value added tax in the country.
Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Friday hinted that value added tax might not take off as scheduled in June as not all states have agreed to its implementation.
Maharashtra is likely to incur a revenue loss of Rs 1,500-2,000 crore (Rs 15-20 billion) in the current fiscal due to implementation of value added tax.
Kabir was seen clinging to the tricolour-wrapped coffin of his father. He bowed before his father's body just before cremation.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue of tax cuts on petroleum products, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday said people were aware of the fact behind the issue and pointed out at his government effecting a Rs 3 a litre cut on petrol earlier.
Jet fuel or ATF price on Tuesday was hiked by a steep 8.5 per cent - the second increase in a month, while commercial cooking gas rate was cut by Rs 100 per cylinder in line with divergent trends in international benchmarks. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price was increased by 7,728.38 per kilolitre, or 8.5 per cent, in the national capital to Rs 98,508.26 per kl, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Rates, which vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT, have been increased on firming up of global rates that followed four months of decline.
Fashionable looks to get you in the mood for the weekend.
Six years after the rollout of the biggest indirect tax reform in India, Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue of Rs 1.5 lakh crore every month has become a new normal and tax officers are focusing on dealing with fraudsters who are adopting newer modus operandi to game the system, causing loss to the exchequer. To apprehend black sheep, who operate as syndicates and create fake entities on the basis of forged documents to claim input tax credit (ITC), tax officers have started using data analytics, artifical intelligence and machine learning aiming to curb evasion, which was over Rs 3 lakh crore since inception of GST. It was over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2022-23. Thinktank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the most critical pending GST reform is upgradation of GST Network to prevent fake supplies and fraudulent claims of Input Tax Credit (ITC).
The best styles from the celebrity circuit this week.
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