With the finance ministry facing the risk of missing its tax collection target this year, it has turned down a proposal to reduce duties on petroleum products to reduce the impact of rising crude prices on profitability of oil companies.
On Friday, Mamata Banerjee took oath as Bengal's first woman chief minister. Keeping her vow of 18 years, she set foot in Writer's Building. On this historic day Indrani Roy Mitra captures the mood in Kolkata Here's a first person account.
Close on the heels of the 'shoe-cleaning' episode, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is in news again after an ad-hoc woman school-teacher was sacked allegedly for approaching her with a personal petition during her visit to the institution.
The government also proposed promoting 'one product one district' for better marketing and export of horticulture crops. It also called on states for early implementation of three key central model laws on land leasing, agriculture produce and livestock marketing and contract farming.
After taking a stroll in the bylanes of South Kolkata, Indrani Roy Mitra moves on to North Kolkata in the sweltering heat as the day progresses, and talks to voters and supporters alike during the third phase polling of the West Bengal assembly elections
'If they succeed in silencing this great university, it will be a tragic day for the nation.'
As the first phase of assembly elections was underway, rediff.com's Indrani Mitra Roy toured north Bengal only to find that the Trinamool-Congress alliance has a few takers here. Most voters swore by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, a few referred to them as extortionists.
Sukanya Verma lists 10 of her favourite songs of the year, in no particular order.
Rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra was in Nalhati in the Birbhum district near the Bengal-Jharkhand border on Wednesday to cover the campaign of Abhijit Mukherjee, a former corporate executive and son of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. And here's what she saw.
Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra admits tax collection target for 2011-12 is ambitious but achievable.
The central government will lose about Rs 24,000 crore (Rs 240 billion) of revenue during the current fiscal on account of reduction in customs and excise duties on petroleum goods.
In a pre-Budget meeting with Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra, Ficci President Rajan Bharti Mittal said in view of the looming threat of a double-dip recession and another slowdown in western countries, the stimulus should not be rolled back in the Budget in February.
In an interview with Rediff.com's Indrani Roy-Mitra in 2005, Maqbool Fida Husain had talked about his latest art projects, his passion for Hindi films and India's place in the world of art. We reproduce the article in tribute to the painter who has passed into the ages
The government on Thursday said it may not be possible to roll out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April next year, as the proposal needs consent from all the states. "...the (GST) legislation cannot be voted upon until the ratification is completed...there may be problem on the time factor (April 1, 2012)," Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra said at a CII post-Budget conference.
Hinting at the possibility of the Budget proposal for imposition of service tax on 25-bed hospitals and diagnostic check-ups being rolled back, the government has said it is willing to discuss the issue.
The state government as an interim measure would raise Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) from market borrowings and Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) as loan from small savings, Mitra told reporters at the state secretariat.
'Publicity looks good, but the reality is different... all sections are feeling harassed'
Banerjee, however, didn't clarify whether any other minister of her cabinet would attend the meeting on her behalf or not.
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The government has set a revenue target of Rs 9 lakh crore during the current financial year, a top official said.
The draft is in the form of a discussion paper, and has taken radical steps to improvise on the paper released in 2009 on the same issue.
As the Centre tried to build consensus on its proposal on constitution amendment bill, required for the rollout of GST, and even floated revised draft to please states, some states came out with alternative model that would not require the amendment of constitution.
In the revised Draft Taxes Code, which will replace the 50-year-old Income Tax Act, the finance ministry decided to drop its earlier proposal to tax the Government Provident Fund or the Public Provident Fund withdrawals.
The government on Wednesday said the total tax collections--both direct and indirect--for 2010-11 have exceeded even the revised estimate on the back of strong economic activities.
In the Budget for 2011-12, the government revised the tax mop-up target for 2010-11 to Rs. 4.46 lakh crore for direct taxes and Rs. 3.36 lakh crore for indirect taxes.
The Bharatiya Janata Party garnered five seats, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got three, the Samajwadi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam got two apiece and the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena got one each respectively as all 30 made it to the Upper House after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations drew to close on Thursday evening.
Rediff.com correspondent Indrani Roy Mitra and Photographer Dipak Chakraborty reached the accident site near Jhargram in West Bengal, where a Mumbai-bound train derailed, early on Friday morning. She chronicles the grim situation at ground zero and asks some tough questions.
The exercises will be held after a gap of one year as both the sides were locked in a 73-day standoff in Doklam in the Sikkim sector of the border in 2017.
The ministry had revised the estimates of direct and indirect taxes after healthy collection.
The idea is not to form a Bengali lobby group but simply to get to know each other better.
The Union ministry of information & broadcasting has constituted a committee headed by Amit Mitra, secretary general, FICCI, to review existing television rating point system (TRP) in India and suggest measures to bring in place an effective mechanism for a transparent TRP system in the country.
The council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will meet again on December 11 and 12 to hammer out the differences.
Mamata Banerjee predicts the BJP-led NDA will not get more than 150 seats in the next Lok Sabha election.
While the government has the option of ensuring the passage of these Bills as money Bills, there are voices within the government advising discretion on the GST roll-out by April 1.
The industry ministry in a recent concept paper proposed raising the FDI cap in the defence sector to 74 per cent.
While Unilever has been aggressive, both organically and inorganically in the country, P&G's approach has been about achieving 'balanced growth' in terms of top line and bottom line.
Apprehensive that the Reserve Bank may tighten the screws on money supply to rein in the wayward inflation, the industry said the central bank should refrain from taking any knee-jerk reaction.
As the Centre's decision ahead of the end of the 40-day lockdown brought cheers to lakhs of migrant workers across the country, quarantine centres and shelter homes were also being readied for the returning migrants with Uttar Pradesh alone preparing to receive an estimated 10 lakh people.
Frenzied scenes were witnessed at the airport this morning when Pele landed in the Kolkata after 38 years as the 74-year-old Brazilian turned emotional and stood on the floor of his SUV to wave at the crowd, who kept chanting his name.
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