The Indian startup ecosystem, which defied odds during a pandemic-hit year to create record 12 unicorns, has the potential to be the engine of growth in the medium to long run, according to the Economic Survey 2020-21. The survey noted that startups are the platform for entrepreneurs who have the ability to think out of the box and innovate to conceive products that can create a niche for themselves in a dynamically changing world.
India will either have to create a system in which certain geographical areas will wind up being permanent political outsiders at the Union level or it will have to create a system in which certain votes are weighted more heavily than others, observes Mihir S Sharma.
By any economic theory or doctrine, this is no Budget that supports economic recovery, whether through supporting aggregate demand, or through expansionary stimulus, declares Rathin Roy.
Various alleged administrative and financial irregularities worth crores have been pointed out in execution of development works in worst Naxal-hit Bastar district of Chhattisgarh by state Accountant General.
Consumers are paying an exorbitant 180 per cent tax on petrol, and 140 per cent on diesel in Delhi and in most other towns in India. Little wonder then that the central government expects a staggering Rs 3.46 trillion by levying excise duties on retail sale of the two fuels this year, and Rs 3.2 trillion the next. States would generally have had reason to cheer, as they command a 41 per cent share in Centre's tax revenues. But as the Centre has raised excise duties in the form of "cess," the revenue proceeds are by nature not shareable with states.
The demand for extension of the GST cess regime among others was made by several state finance ministers at a pre-budget consultation called by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi. Besides, many states also demanded raising the share of the Union government in the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). Currently, the central government and state government share in some CSS is 60:40 while in others it is 75:25.
It shows that states would require a compensation to the tune of at least Rs 1.67 trillion in 2024-25, as none of them would be able to achieve a 14 per cent growth every year.
JioMeet, which has already got the endorsement of top government officials and politicians, saw a huge surge in its ranking on Google Play, based on its downloads.
The GST Council also decided that a committee of officers will be constituted to examine the simplification of forms for annual return and reconciliation statement.
A homemaker in every family would get a monthly assistance of Rs 1,000, the manifesto said.
'The CEA suggested that could be as high as 19 per cent.'
The finance ministry has asked all ministries and departments not to initiate any new scheme in the current financial year and said that there is a need to use resources prudently in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. However, funds for schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package and any other special package or announcement would be allocated, according to an office memorandum by the department of expenditure, which comes under the finance ministry.
'Even before the outbreak of the flu, it had become clear that the tax revenue numbers for 2019-2020 were overestimated,' observes A K Bhattacharya.
The collection from borrowings and other liabilities will be 20 paise, while income tax will yield 17 paise to every rupee collection.
The Finance Commission has substantially increased the allocation of funds to panchayats, but a large part of it is apportioned by state governments.
'All of us have believed in decentralisation. You may not like property taxation, neither do I. My solution is that the Centre does the tax collection, but we can give a matching grant instead of redistribution,' says the outgoing CEA, Arvind Subramanian.
'Every Finance Commission creates its winners and losers' point out T N Ninan.
The time is ripe for debate on city governments in India.
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.
The revised estimated expenditure for FY20 has been pegged at Rs 26.99 lakh crore and receipts at Rs 19.32 lakh crore, she said.
The ripples from November 8 may be seen in next year's state budgets.
Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said the country is at the doorstep of economic revival on the back of accommodative monetary and fiscal policies being pursued by the central bank and the government.
Sitharaman exhorted the states to work together with the Centre, stating that while the Union government sets the direction of economic growth, it is for the states to ensure effective implementation on the ground.
States may face a GST compensation shortfall of Rs 3 lakh crore in the next financial year, a situation that will force them to borrow more from the markets, says a report. The states may face a shortfall of Rs 2.7-3 lakh crore as Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation from the Centre next fiscal. Out of that amount, the shortfall from cess collections will be at Rs 1.6-2 lakh crore, according to an Icra report released on Monday. In FY21, the states were facing a shortfall of Rs 1.1 lakh crore in GST compensation from the Centre but over 90 per cent of that amount has been cleared now.
Actor-turned-politician and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee has been fielded from Chunchura and another MP Nishit Parmanik from Dinhata. Also, a number of film personalities have been nominated as candidates in the high-stakes battle for West Bengal.
The TDP chief said he tried to speak to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a 'courtesy' to inform him about the decision to quit but he did not come on line.
Nirmala Sitharaman has designed the revenue mix in such a way that while Centre's share in taxes would grow a massive 25 per cent, states' share would grow a dismal 6 per cent.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday reviewed the post-cyclone situation and damages caused by Cyclone Yaas in the state at a meeting in Bhubaneswar where Odisha government demanded long term solutions to mitigate problems of repeated cyclones and provision of disaster resilient power systems.
There will be a dramatic alteration in the role the Centre and the states will play to shape India's fiscal and economic destiny, report Nitin Sethi and Ishan Bakshi.
Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi said on Thursday that 'performing states' like Tamil Nadu have not been receiving their 'due share' from successive finance commissions, who, he alleged, gave more importance to backward states. He called for more allocation to the state from the Central Relief Fund, "considering the natural calamities," the compensation for which, especially crop loss, needed to be substantially increased.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to issue fresh guidelines for providing minimum standards of financial help to families of those who lost their lives to COVID-19.
Corporation tax is the single largest source of income, contributing 21 paise to each rupee earned.
Money allocated for rural India has increased, but expenditure of panchayats is not adequate and inconsistent
'There is a fiscal crisis building up, which might become apparent when the Finance Commission presents its report,' warns T N Ninan.
The Y V Reddy-headed commission said the states should use extra fiscal space for productive assets
He also said that the focus will be on developing infrastructure in a big way and bring the state out of the debt trap if the BJP wins the assembly polls that are likely to be held in April-May this year.
Denied of any relief from the UPA-II government, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday pinned her hopes on the new BJP government at the Centre for a positive response on the state's huge debt repayment problem.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the government has begun an exercise to assess the impact of the pandemic on the economy and likely contraction in GDP, even as she did not rule out the possibility of another stimulus to boost growth.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and discussed issues related to the Maratha reservation, pending GST compensation and the proposed Metro car shed in Kanjur.
The 14th Finance Commission had recommended that states' share in the divisible tax pool be raised to 42 per cent, from 32 per cent earlier.
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