Opposition-ruled states warn of steep annual losses; Centre assures higher consumption will offset revenue hit.
No longer Bengal's finance minister, Amit Mitra, Mamata's principal chief advisor, will still advise and aid the 'chief minister and finance department on all matters relating to management of state finance', represent the 'state government in national and international events/meetings/committees' and examine 'important proposals/files and policy issues relating to financial matters referred to him for advice/views'.
Noted economist and senior Trinamool Congress leader Amit Mitra is likely to step down as the West Bengal finance minister and even retire from active politics due to ill health, party sources said on Sunday.
'I am not saying we will get $10 billion from overseas Indians at the end of the Pravasi Diwas conference. We will get just a trickle but the interest will be generated,' says FICCI Secretary-General Amit Mitra.
Trinamool Congress candidate Amit Mitra, who is an economist by training and is pitted against West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta in the Assembly polls, has said the state's financial condition can be improved with a flow of investments and expansion of existing industrial units.
Delhi Police have registered a case against unknown persons for manhandling West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra outside the Planning Commission office.
The Mamata Banerjee government, which came to power in July last year, has been demanding special package in the form of interest moratorium.
Ficci stood for the voice of a defensive, traditional Indian business class.
Six activists belonging to Communist Party of India-Marxist and its youth wing Students Federation of India, including two women, were arrested in New Delhi on Monday for allegedly assaulting West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra outside the Planning Commission office two weeks back.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee fell ill and was administered oxygen while her Finance Minister Amit Mitra was put under observation in AIIMS for some medical tests, hours after they were heckled by an angry mob of SFI activists outside the Planning Commission office.
West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday criticised the statements of West Bengal ministers against Ratan Tata, and said Tata's views and opinions about the development of the state would always be welcomed by the people of Bengal.
Stating that GST council meetings have become "almost toxic" with the erosion of trust between the Centre and states, West Bengal minister Amit Mitra on Wednesday urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to consider a "course correction" to rebuild faith. In a letter to Sitharaman, the state's finance minister also claimed that the central government comes to GST council meetings with a "predetermined conclusion". Mitra on June 13 alleged that his voice was "muzzled" during the GST Council meeting on that day and his opposition to levy taxes on Covid essentials like vaccines, masks, PPE kits and anti-viral drug Remdesivir, was not heard.
Mitra said that Tata group firm TCS was creating additional 20,000 jobs.
He will succeed Kerala Finance Minister K M Mani.
'This is the Bengal story, where businesses are nurtured, dreams are realised, and legacies are built.'
According to Mitra, items such as foodgrain, vegetables, leather goods, footwear, cottage cheese, puffed and flattened rice, books and entertainment tax, among several others, should be in the zero-tax bracket.
Amit Mitra may have stopped talking about relaxing rules for foreign investment in India, but there is no dilution of his commitment to the cause of fiscal consolidation in West Bengal.
The welfare schemes of the government, particularly Lakshmir Bhandar, have had a major impact on the electoral outcome.
Just as the umpire's decision is no longer final, what is disdainfully rejected is the age-old dictum that the game should be played and watched in the spirit of the game, sighs Uddalok Bhattacharya.
Analysts have their doubts how much independence she has as finance minister. As Amit Mitra advises the chief minister, day-to-day work is done by the finance secretary and the chief secretary.
The announcement is seen as a bid to assert Banerjee's control over the party, and stem dissension between a section of TMC's old guard and the next generation leaders.
After the Covid-19 pandemic that derailed the economy since 2019, the Durga Puja festival in West Bengal is back with an estimated 20-30 per cent jump in festive spending. Retail sector is the key contributor to the state's Durga Puja economy which was Rs 32,377 crore in 2019, according to a British Council study conducted for the state government. Retail accounts for 85 per cent of the total puja economy and the rest is shared among pandal making, decoration, illumination, entertainment, advertisement, food & beverage and others.
The GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, will meet on December 31 and discuss, among other things, report of the panel of state ministers on rate rationalisation. This will be a physical meeting, which will also discuss correction in duty inversion in certain goods. The 46th GST Council meeting will be held on December 31 in Delhi, an official said, adding that it will be an extension to the pre-budget meeting with state finance ministers on December 30. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation will submit report to the Council.
Violence has erupted in Bengal on Tuesday after Students' Federation of India activists heckled West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra.
Students' Federation of India General Secretary Ritabrata Bhattacharjee today apologized for the manhandling of West Bengal Finance minister Amit Mitra in Delhi on April nine, but said that his organisation was not involved in it.
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.
Whenever people think of India, they will think of Ficci as a place they could go to facilitate investment, says Rajiv Kumar.
The finance ministry has set up two committees of state finance ministers which would rework rate slabs, review GST exempt items and identify potential evasion sources. Four years after the roll out of the national Goods and Services Tax (GST), which replaced the complex indirect tax structure, the centre and states have started work on moving towards a "simpler rate structure in GST" by reviewing the current rate slabs, including special rates and merger of rate slabs. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on rate rationalisation would also review items under inverted duty structure to help minimise refund payout, and review the supply of goods and services exempt under GST with an objective to expand the tax base and eliminate breaking of input tax credit (ITC) chain.
The party brought back Yashwant Sinha as its national vice-president.
The byelections are of critical importance to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who lost the assembly poll to Bharatiya Janata Party's Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram.
Mr Mitra, show me where is industrial development in Bengal: Tata
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.
However, the chief minister made up for her absence by addressing the gathering via state Industry and Finance Minister Amit Mitra's mobile phone.
To help the country emerge as a true welfare State, political parties must put the country's interests first before strategising to win elections and short-term goals, argues Ramesh Menon.
Experts say moratorium on interest not a solution, debt needs to be restructured; state must look for avenues to increase revenue and curtail expenditure.
He termed this as 'intolerance' towards the constitutional head of the state, and expressed confidence that the media will not be a 'silent spectator' to such episodes.
Partha Chatterjee, former West Bengal industry minister, says it is a gross misconception that the government's policy is anti-industry.
Communist Party of India-Marxist's student wing Students Federation of India on Thursday claimed that none of its activists were involved in the heckling of West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra in New Delhi and described the incident as "unfortunate".
According to reports, the Trinamool Congress workers are staging rallies, holding protests in Kolkata and other parts of the state to protest against the SFI attack on their leaders.
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