With only West Bengal sending in the draft amendments to Value-added Tax Bill, the finance ministry said on Thursday that a new roadmap will be drawn up for the implementation of the progressive tax regime, which was to be effective from June 1.
The crucial meeting of the empowered committee of state finance ministers on value-added tax began in New Delhi on Wednesday to resolve all pending issues to ensure smooth implementation of the new tax regime from June 1 this year.
Close on the heels of truckers' strike, tea traders and producers across the country on Monday began their two-day nationwide agitation in protest against the proposed 12.5 per cent tax slab on tea under the value-added tax regime.
Leading trade associations on Wednesday threatened to go on a 48-hour nationwide strike from March 31 to protest the introduction of value-added tax from the next fiscal.
Asserting that the self reliant India programme will help revive the global economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday told global business community that his government aims to transform the country through access, inclusion and empowerment while also ensuring complete data security. Addressing the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda Summit, where he also interacted with global business leaders, Modi also said India offers a predictable and friendly environment from tax regime to FDI norms. He said Aatmanirbhar Bharat movement is committed to global good and global supply chain while the country's digital profile has been completely transformed.
Drabu said the GST regime will roll out in the state at midnight on Friday, making Jammu and Kashmir the last state to join the new tax regime.
The EU also feels that Tamil Nadu has adopted a restrictive practice for imported liquor. Significantly, a similar complaint by the trade bloc at the WTO led to the elimination of additional Customs duty on imported liquor in 2007.
'The introduction of a tax on LTCG will be a deterrent for foreign investors and could potentially result in a movement of trading activity away from India to other offshore jurisdictions such as Singapore, which offer better tax rates and sophisticated financial products.'
The finance minister said the government was open to suggestions.
The grandfathering clause and set-off provisions can be used to reduce the tax payable on sale of bonus shares, says Arvind A Rao.
He, however, acknowledged that manufacturing states will suffer losses but said they will be compensated
Shyam Ponappa explores what the right aims and strategies could do for us.
Modi also reached out to traders, saying their past records will not be checked by the income tax department if they join the formal economy by getting themselves registered under the GST regime.
HUFs are not used for tax evasion but for tax avoidance/to save the tax within the four corners of the law. Experts say that there will be little or almost insignificant change in tax revenues.
Central Board of Excise and Customs Chairperson Vanaja Sarna said there will be genuine errors due to lack of understanding in the initial days. "CBEC has enforcement authorities and I have specifically said that the first three to six months are a go-slow.... I don't want small cases to be made," Sarna said at a CII event.
As corporate India gears up to be GST-ready, the ongoing litigation and tax dispute cases are something most businesses are cagey about.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday announced that the Permanent Account Number (PAN) to be made sole identity for participants in the security markets to strengthen capital market.
Govt may not announce any new concessions in excise duty
At least 120 insurance intermediaries and aggregators from across the country are under scrutiny, mainly from Mumbai, Gurugram and Bengaluru.
Over the next four years corporate tax will come down by 5 per cent and lot of exemptions will get phased out.
The compensation would be met through levy of a cess called 'GST Compensation Cess' on luxury items and sin goods like tobacco, for the first five years.
The S&P BSE Auto Index has been one of the biggest outperformers among sectoral indices over the past year with returns of 26 per cent. By comparison, the benchmarks - the National Stock Exchange Nifty50 and the S&P BSE Sensex - managed about 6-8 per cent during this period. Improving demand, falling raw material costs, and rising product realisations, led by the premiumisation of portfolios, have led to a revision of growth estimates and upgrades by domestic brokerages.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the GST bill to compensate states for revenue loss for five years on introduction of the uniform nationwide indirect tax regime.
'The BJP's real weapons are Hindutva, organisation and finance.'
Financial accounting software company Tally Solutions on Thursday launched its VAT-compliant business accounting software 'Tally 7.2', aimed specifically at the small and medium segment for changeover to the new tax regime that begins from April1.
If the Budget makes no big announcements on new schemes, projects, or tax giveaways, the government would face a major political dilemma as it may have to reluctantly consider shunning the practice of unveiling pre-election sops to woo voters, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Sentiments may get impacted as mutual funds have been gaining traction among investors as route to invest in stock markets
Modi on Friday invited the Congress leaders at his Race Course Road residence at 7 PM, sources said.
The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
PM promised a tax regime that is predictable and competitive
After Multi Fiber Arrangement is phased out, the textile industry of developing economies like India will have a reason to be optimistic about the long-term growth opportunity.
Expanding investigation into allegedly wrongful claims of input tax credit by insurance companies, the tax authorities are probing a section of automobile dealers who have supposedly generated fake invoices without providing any service, which is a punishable offence under goods and services tax (GST) law. The authorities are learnt to have questioned the car dealers to explain the services they provided general insurance companies. The investigators suspect car dealers pitched for insurance schemes that give them commissions in excess of those insurance regulations permit.
Is the curated and limited data put out by the central government sufficient enough to pass a judgement on the trend in GST collections, particularly that of the Centre?
These airports are those at Amritsar, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.
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.
They have been on an unbroken selling streak since the Union Budget, spooked by increase in income-tax surcharge, taxes on buybacks, and lack of stimulus to prop up the economy.
An equitable tax regime makes more sense than debates over whether the rich should pay more.
'If the NDA comes to power with 320-330 plus seats, then we could see some correction. We could possibly see a level of 19,500 to 20,000.' 'If the NDA comes to power with a majority of 400-plus, we could see the markets going to about 23,500-24,000 levels.' 'And from there we could see some correction because markets are expensive at this point of time and a correction is overdue.'
