Currently, domestic supplies and commercial imports of vaccines attract a 5 per cent Goods and Services Tax, while COVID drugs and oxygen concentrators attract a 12 per cent levy.
Ending the suspense, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday will be skipping Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony on May 26 and will be sending state Finance Minister Amit Mitra and party general secretary Mukul Roy.
With the resignation of Uttam Bose as managing director and chief executive officer of HM last week, Moloy Chowdhury has been appointed as acting MD and CEO of the company, which owns assets at Uttarpara and Indore.
This may lead to the states' combined fiscal deficit to widen much faster, while the Centre may show a smaller or insignificant slippage in meeting its deficit target. The Centre will celebrate over its fiscal prudence, but the states would suffer, A K Bhattacharya points out.
The Centre has to bear the maximum burden of borrowing NSSF loans to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore.
He claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party people were alerted beforehand about the demonetisation. "How can one explain the BJP people in West Bengal depositing crores in high-denomination notes just before PM's announcement on November 8?" Rahul asked. "BJP workers were seen holding up bundles of the new Rs 2000 notes, as seen from images on the Internet, before Modi announced this decision," he told reporters in suburban Bandra.
The Supreme Court Wednesday flagged the issue of possible misuse of funds received through electoral bonds by political parties for illegal purposes like terrorism and asked the Centre whether there was any 'control' over how these funds were put to use.
Government-controlled oil-marketing companies (OMCs) have held back petrol and diesel price revisions for a week and are expected to continue doing so, ostensibly owing to political reasons. It appears that the Centre has informally conveyed to the three major OMCs to not revise fuel prices for the time being, two people in the government said. This informal directive follows the talks between the Centre and states on cutting taxes and bringing the auto fuels under the good service tax regime not fetching the desired results, so far.
Unlike any other national asset, which is typically sold to the highest bidder, the profile of the bidder is the most important criterion for a licence to bank, and even for acquiring more than 5 per cent stake, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
The government's top leadership was happy with Prabhu's Budget.
Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir seek more time.
The CPI-M leader also demanded the setting up of a House Committee to examine the latest developments in various central universities.
Three TMC leaders Amit Mitra, Bratya Basu and Rathin Ghosh were sworn-in virtually. Mitra is unwell and both Basu and Ghosh are recuperating from COVID-19.
2,138 firms deposited unaccounted Rs 5,000 cr in zero-balance accounts during the note ban
The microfinance vertical of the bank will provide loans of Rs 80,000 to Rs 1,00,000.
Among large states, the lowest rate of filing was seen in Bihar at 5 per cent, followed by UP at 8.11 per cent - much below the national average of 12 per cent.
Mukherjee's family and relatives paid their last respects clad in PPE kits while conforming to COVID-19 safeguards.
'A sum of Rs 6,000 a year is very significant for a small farmer whose land holding is very small and whose produce is very small. All these calculations on a daily basis are extremely unfortunate and an insult to farmers.'
She hit out strongly against the "misguided" Congress party for backing "fringe groups" at universities which have shown Maoist or separatist tendencies.
The council also cut GST rates on affordable housing to 1 per cent from the current 8 per cent.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance's meeting comes against the backdrop of CBI probing the Saradha scam in which thousands of crores or rupees of gullible investors were allegedly swindled.
Till Thursday, everything was "going well", the chief minister said, adding that unfortunately, "the political meetings at the appropriate level" could not be confirmed.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took stock of the flood situation in Tamil Nadu and discussed it with his cabinet colleagues, including the Home and Finance ministers.
Jaitley said the Congress has given to the people many slogans but very little resources to implement its election promises.
They are likely to meet Sitaram Yechury following the meeting with Gandhi.
Sources in the Fifteenth Finance Commission said that they will implement the provisions after the bill is enacted and the President makes a reference to it.
The saffron party is assured of victory in eight of the ten seats in UP going by its dominant numbers in the state assembly.
The states have unanimously pitched for sole administrative powers to carry out assessment, scrutiny and enforcement for entities up to an annual turnover of Rs 1.5 crore.
The Karnataka government is also expected to follow suit and withdraw its decision to raise the variable DA.
Despite being cleared in the lower house, the GST bill has been pending in the Rajya Sabha for clearance, where the Congress enjoys numerical strength, reports Kavita Chowdhury.
A number of Union ministers including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reached the residence of Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in New Delhi to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr on Wednesday.
The wheels turn for bicycles, as manufacturers go back to the basics. After motorised two-wheelers overtook cycle sales in the country, manufacturers are focusing on commuter segment again and reviving entry-level cycles.
Rajan Committee has evoked divergent reactions from the states.
The new faces in the state cabinet include former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shovandeb Chattopadhaya, Kolkata Mayor Shovan Chatterjee, Abani Mohan Joarder, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Suvendu Adhikari, Rabindranath Ghosh, Churamani Mahato, James Kujur, Siddikullah Choudhury, Asima Patra, Ghulam Rabbani, Zakir Hossain, Sandhya Rani Tudu, singer Indranil Sen, Tapan Dasgupta and B Hansda.
The two sides inked nearly two dozen pacts in key areas of defence and civil nuclear cooperation after "productive" talks between Modi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the nation's capital.
There is also a buzz about Shah joining the government. About 60 ministers may take oath.
The reshuffle had politics at its heart, so the biggest complement of new ministers, both Cabinet rank and below, came from UP, which will see assembly elections in a few months.
States spent much more in the first three months of the current financial year compared to the corresponding period last year.
Delivering his concluding address to the party's National Executive, which saw its president Amit Shah raising concerns over "migration" of Hindus from a communally-sensitive western Uttar Pradesh town, Modi made no reference to the controversial issues and instead asked leaders to use power for the benefit of society.
With the price of a cylinder touching Rs 800, it's becoming increasingly unaffordable to an already price-sensitive population, threatening to risk one of the most-celebrated campaigns of the Modi regime, reports Twesh Mishra.
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