The name of Mitra, a 1975 batch IAS officer from West Bengal cadre, was cleared by the appointments committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Amidst panic in the stock market over double tax avoidance treaty with Mauritius, government on Monday said India "cannot impose arbitrarily" capital gains tax on investment routed through the island nation.
"We had announced last year that the decision would be taken at an appropriate time to deregulate diesel, the government hasn't changed their decision... We have to see how the inflationary pressures go and take a decision," Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra told reporters on the sidelines of an Assocham function.
The 14-year old scheme is the most popular among exporters, especially in the engineering including automobiles sector. India's exports went up by 37.55 per cent year-on-year to $ 245.86 billion during 2010-11.
The government has set the indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal at Rs 3.92 lakh crore (Rs 3.92 trillion) and for direct taxes at Rs 5.32 lakh crore (Rs 5.32 trillion).
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.
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.
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.
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 idea is not to form a Bengali lobby group but simply to get to know each other better.
Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra admits tax collection target for 2011-12 is ambitious but achievable.
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.
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 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.
Mitra will take over from P V Bhide after January 31.
Disinvestment secretary Sunil Mitra last month wrote to his counterpart in Petroleum ministry R S Pandey seeking comments on 'public offerings from Government's shareholding' in ONGC and IOC. While government has not allowed IOC and other retailers Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum to raise petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene price in line with the cost, they have not been given the promised compensation.
The government has set a revenue target of Rs 9 lakh crore during the current financial year, a top official said.
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 ministry had revised the estimates of direct and indirect taxes after healthy collection.
The much awaited new indirect tax regime Goods and Service Tax (GST) is unlikely to be implemented from the scheduled date of April 1, 2011, a top government official said on Tuesday.
Presently, the list that we have of profit-making PSUs for divestment is based on financial numbers from 20007-08.
Referring to disinvestment in National Hydel Power Corporation and the Oil India Limited, Mitra said while the enterprise value of NHPC rose from Rs 18,280 crore (Rs 182.8 billion) to Rs 37,702 crore (Rs 377.02 billion) after listing, that of Oil India Limited rose from Rs 9,844 crore (Rs 98.44 billion) to Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion).
"We are in interactions with the Ministry of Steel for SAIL, we are in interactions with the Coal Ministry on Coal India. On BSNL also, we are in interaction with the IT and Communication Ministry."
Having altered the income tax slabs in the Budget, the Finance Ministry on Thursday said the next round of widening of the tax slabs is possible when the direct taxes code (DTC) comes into effect, likely from 2011-12.
The Finance Ministry on Thursday said it does not anticipate any backlash from PSU employees against divestment in state-run companies and the target of Rs 40,000 crore under this head next fiscal is 'modest' and achievable.
The company has already received the coal ministry's nod to reduce the face value of its shares to Rs 10 from Rs 1,000 at present.
The government on Monday rapped state-owned BSNL for poor financial performance and made a case for disinvestment in the telecom PSU through an initial public offer.
The Centre mopped up Rs 2.46 lakh crore from indirect taxes in the last fiscal, as much as Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) more than the revised target, despite stimulus packages.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has also said that the bill on DTC was likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of Parliament.
Central Board of Excise and Customs chairman V Sridhar has also said the realty sector would not attract 10 per cent service tax in effect.
By partially rolling back the stimulus that was provided through fiscal incentives in the excise duties and by retaining the service tax at 10 per cent, we are primarily signalling that we are going back to a unified goods and services tax, says Sunil Mitra.
The Finance Commission (task force) had recommended an overall GST rate of 12 per cent 'but it is likely to be higher than that', revenue secretary Sunil Mitra said at a Confederation of Indian Industry seminar in New Delhi.
The government on Saturday said it will earn an additional Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) from the hike in excise and restoration of duties on petroleum products, while it will lose Rs 21,000 crore (Rs 210 billion) due to income tax sops.
The upward revision in the tax collection target comes in the wake of 8.9 per cent economic growth during the first half of the current fiscal.
The government on Friday said it is expecting to raise about Rs 8,100 crore (Rs 81 billion) from the five per cent stake sale in power PSU NTPC through a Follow-on Public Offer (FPO).
Kar mentioned the increasing importance of natural gas as a substitute for oil and coal as fuel for thermal power generators in future.
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".
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