Officers across departments and ministries have been asked to speak to people across sectors for 'SWOT' analysis of issues for revival of the economy.

Direct tax collections missed the revised target for 2019-20 by Rs 1.42 trillion at Rs 10.27 trillion, an 8 per cent fall over the previous year.

'We will not compromise on it. We will not make any deferred payments or cuts.'

This brings its tax treatment on par with the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

'It is unclear whether clothing or home items qualify as essential items. A lot of professionals are working from home, and they need electronics for their productivity. Does this qualify as essential?'

The scheme offers waiver of interest, penalty, and prosecution for settling tax disputes.

The bulk of states' revenue comes from the devolution from the Centre's divisible tax pool, GST, VAT on petroleum, and excise duty on alcohol.

The instruction is that audit of large units be completed within seven working days, of medium units in five working days and of small ones in three.

In fact, India's investment activity growth is also estimated to touch a 17-year low in FY20. With overall demand not showing signs of revival, investment activity may take longer to recover, economists said.

The department notified ITR 1-Sahaj and ITR 4-Sugam in January against the usual practice of notifying returns in April, with disclosure requirements related to cash deposits, spending on foreign travel, and electricity. The notification of the returns followed Budget announcements making income-tax return filing mandatory for certain persons even if their income was below the taxable limit.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said, a hike in GST rates would have hampered consumption amid the economic slowdown. The revenue augmentation panel in the Council meeting recently recommended revisiting and restructuring the GST rate slabs, besides correcting the inverted duty structure. The panel listed 24 items, including mobile phones, footwear, fabrics, LED light, medical equipment, utensils, agri machinery, pharma, and renewable components, which have an inverted duty structure, resulting in refunds of close to Rs 20,000 crore annually.

Proposals from the Centre's side include raising the 5 per cent slab to anywhere between 6 and 8 per cent, and doing away with the 12 per cent slab. A few states may oppose such a move because it involves hiking tax on items consumed by the poor. They have instead proposed raising the 18 per cent slab.

To improve compliance, govt may introduce lottery reward for filing GST. The Consumer Welfare Fund, where anti-profiteering proceeds are deposited, will be used to reward the lucky winners on monthly and annual bases. The prize money, yet to be fixed, may run into several lakhs of rupees for the annual draw, and about Rs 50,000 for monthly draws.

The e-invoicing system will be rolled out in a phased manner from January 1 on a voluntary and trial basis, beginning with firms with a turnover of Rs 500 crore, while businesses with a turnover of Rs 100 crore or more will be required to do it from February 1.

The government is planning to extend the electronic modes of tax payment to its own payments platform, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), credit cards of banks, or even a mobile wallet like Paytm.

The reduced growth is largely because of consumption slowdown and tax rate cuts.

The aim of the exercise was to further simplify GST forms and make the filing process more user-friendly, the finance ministry said in a tweet, reports Dilasha Seth.

Govt may tighten presumptive taxation norms and also do away with some deductions.

Collection will have to rise by 30 per cent in the remaining period of the financial year to achieve the Budget estimate.

The properties the government is eyeing to dispose of this year are located in prime locations of cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Surat, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Chennai.