"I dont think we will be able to contain fiscal deficit to our Budget plan of 5.1 per cent (of GDP). It could be 5.2 to 5.3 per cent, which is doable," Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters in New Delhi.
The central government babus have been given a big hike in TA/DA (travel allowance/dearness allowance) as part of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, but it may be only illusory as ministries and departments will get no additional funds to foot their bills.
Last week, the government had introduced a fresh round of austerity measures, including bans on first class travel, creation of new posts and holding meetings in five-star facilities.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently extended a Rs 8,000-crore (Rs 80 billion) central support for building roads in Jammu & Kashmir, Union Cabinet's approval for the big-ticket announcement came in barely 48 hours.
'The core sectors have not done very well in the past one year.'
If cleared, the ONGC arm will become the first subsidiary company of an existing Maharatna to get into this superior league among government-owned entities.
Those conducting their businesses predominantly in cash and evading income tax have reasons to worry.
"How many more lies will be peddled to sustain a sinking dynast? India, certainly deserves better," Jaitley said.
There has been criticism of the official statistics ever since MoSPI came out with new methodology to estimate the GDP on the base year of 2011-12 compared to earlier 2004-05.
It's possible to curb tax evasion using high-end technology. But it requires an honest intention to make use of the treasure trove of data that is captured, points out Harsh Roongta.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved 'Mission Karmayogi', dubbed as the biggest bureaucratic reform initiative, aimed at capacity building of government employees to make them more "creative, proactive, professional and technology-enabled". The core guiding principles of the competency-driven programme will be to support a transition from "rules based to roles based" HR management to prepare the Indian civil servant for the future, according to a government statement.
'Is the appointment of a CDS likely to achieve the creation of battle-ready, tri-service military commands, from the current 17 single-service commands?', asks Ajai Shukla.
As the national capital reported 93 new cases taking the total number of infections to 669, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal held an emergency meeting with senior ministers and top officials of the Delhi government Wednesday evening and took a series of decisions to check the spread of the virus.
Announcing the cabinet decision, Union minister Prakash Javadekar also said the President, the Vice President, Governors of states have also voluntarily decided to take a pay cut as a social responsibility.
This is causing a shortfall of critical ammunition within the army at a time when the MoD is making emergency purchases from the global arms market to cater for a possible clash with China.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday said the MLAs who visited Brazil to watch the recent football World Cup would pay from their pockets.
The CAG audit may look into expenditure on printing of notes, RBI dividend payout and banking transaction data.
The vertical will be based out of Bengaluru.
Constantly evolving rules and anomalies over tax treatment have constrained corporate programmes in the first year that the government's CSR mandate has been in force.
The government of India will deposit Rs 200 per month for Gramin Dak Sevaks involving an annual expenditure of about Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) to provide for the financial security for them and their spouses after retirement from the service at the age of 65, Minister of State for IT & Telecom Sachin Pilot told reporters in New Delhi.
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The rupee and equity turmoil seem over, with interest shifting to key personnel changes and 2014 polls.
'My interest is to open up transparency to the people who unnecessary raise these issues. The prime minister has full right to go wherever he is going but the question is why is he not transparent on expenditure.' 'When the prime minister went to the UN, he spoke of transparency. You are not complying with it. It shows hypocrisy.' Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) on why he filed an RTI to find out how much Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spent on his foreign visits.
Kumar accused Prasad of renouncing social justice agenda and making it a mere slogan for personal popularity.
Despite crude comfort, heavy spending cuts needed to offset Rs 80k-cr revenue shortfall
Fiscal situation better but spending cuts likely in FY16 too.
There was no law that prevented the government from presenting a sixth full Budget, or something similar to it.
The ones chosen for operation, management and development through a public-private partnership model are Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati.
The Budget 2015-16 will include many of the schemes announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi such as smart cities and high speed trains, Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram said.
This comes at a time when the COVID-19 crisis is expected to derail the government's revenue maths for 2020-21, hitting the mop-up from sources such as taxes and divestment.
The new government, which will be required to boost investments and promote growth, will be presenting a regular Budget after completion of the electoral process.
The Indian IT sector, which gets 60 per cent of its export revenue from the US, on Wednesday said the move by the state of Ohio to ban outsourcing by government departments to offshore locations like India is discriminatory and amounts to a trade barrier.
The Finance Ministry has started preparations for Budget 2014-15 by asking different central ministries and departments to come out with their estimates of receipts as well as expenditure for the next financial year.
Going by the number of changes Mr Jaitley's next Budget is likely to see, he will go down in the history of Budget-making as the finance minister who ushered in the largest number of changes in a single Budget, says A K Bhattacharya.
With the online tax filing and automation of the tax process the number of mistakes made by taxpayers during filing of taxes have been reduced, but considering the importance of the information, a mistake or an error will be an invitation to trouble.
FinMin does not expect tax or non-tax revenue to reach anywhere close to the targets set in the interim Budget. Sources say that the challenge before the new government will be either to accept the reduced projection and tailor the Budget accordingly or set a more ambitious target.
India's economy grew by 1.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020-21, restricting the full-year contraction to 7.3 per cent, official data showed on Monday. The fourth quarter growth was better than the 0.5 per cent expansion in the previous October-December quarter of 2020-21. The gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 3 per cent in the corresponding January-March period of 2019-20, according to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Incentives for industries have been rolled back and teachers have gone without salary for months as the state grapples with the after-effects of the ban
The way the present government has dealt with appointments of civil servants remains to be a cause for concern.
'Unless we get the health and economic situations right at the same time, we will not recover.'
The Rajasthan government on Wednesday joined the austerity bandwagon, banning foreign tours by ministers and officers with immediate effect till June 30 next year.
