BJP sources said the formal process to elect current party President J P Nadda's successor will begin in mid-January, following Makar Sankranti, with Nitin Nabin expected to be the frontrunner to file his nomination.
In FY24 alone, 1.34 million fraud cases were reported, amounting to losses of Rs 1,087 crore.
The Budget for 2024-25 should focus on employment generation, besides promoting the manufacturing sector, economists attending the pre-Budget consultation meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Wednesday said. The meeting was attended by National Co-convenor Swadeshi Jagran Manch Ashwani Mahajan, Director and Chief Executive of the Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID) Nagesh Kumar, and TCA Anant among others.
The GST Council, in its meeting on Saturday, is likely to decide on reducing tax rates on life and health insurance premiums, while hiking it on high-end wrist watches, shoes and apparels, besides considering a separate 35 per cent tax slab for sin goods. The 55th meeting of the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, is likely to discuss rate rejig in about 148 items, besides, it will also deliberate on bringing Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), a major component for airline industry's operation cost, in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) fold.
'The Budget needs to focus more on social welfare schemes.'
The Halwa ceremony, marking the final stage of the budget preparation process for Interim Union Budget 2024, was held in North Block on Wednesday in the presence of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Union Minister of State for Finance Dr Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad was also present. A customary halwa ceremony is performed every year before the "lock-in" process of Budget preparation begins.
Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers.
Now that the economy is growing at a higher-than-expected rate, it is time to accelerate the pace of fiscal consolidation, and the Budget could be a good starting point, argues Rajesh Kumar.
Dressed in colourful attire, members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday got their group photograph clicked in the old Parliament building, hours before legislative proceedings shift to the new Parliament House.
A doctor at heart, always! Great gesture by my colleague, PM Narendra Modi tweeted.
'To the believers of crypto regulations, I have only one question to ask, how will you regulate it?'
Chaudhary also said that 66 per cent of government-sponsored health insurance schemes in the country are being run by the central government. "When the COVID-19 pandemic started, a decision was made for sale of all medicines at the GST rate between 5 and 12 per cent and the GST rate for COVID-19 related medicines and instruments has been reduced to five per cent," he said during the Question Hour.
"The 'UP-type' remark made by a Union minister is not appropriate at all. It only shows a narrow mindset," Sinha said.
The 'halwa ceremony' marks the beginning of the lockdown of several officials in the finance ministry, who remain cut off from their families until the presentation of the Budget by the finance minister in the Lok Sabha.
Ganguly will be ready for the next course of procedures or medical intervention after about 2-3 weeks
The 47th GST Council meeting that is currently underway is slated to discuss a host of issues, including a mechanism for compensating states for revenue loss, tax rate tweaks in some items and relaxed registration norms for small online suppliers. Further, the meeting of the Council, chaired by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state counterparts, will also clear levying the highest tax of 28 per cent on online games, casinos and horse racing, besides, measures to curb tax evasion, especially devising ways to tackle high-risk taxpayers in GST. "The meeting is being chaired by Hon'ble Union Minister of Finance @nsitharaman and many important decisions are expected to be taken at the meet," PIB Chandigarh tweeted.
On Monday, Thakur egged on participants of an election rally to raise an incendiary slogan that 'traitors should be shot', after he lashed out at anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters.
"'So ja bete nahi to Gabbar Singh aa jayega'. Mothers, who have seen the jungle raj days in Bihar, please do tell your children, especially youth, on the polling day to cast their votes carefully, otherwise they (the RJD) may return to power... those who ran a regime of terror and fear," he told a press conference.
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.
The government on Friday sought Parliament's nod for an additional Rs 54,000-crore spending mainly to meet its obligation towards GST compensation to states and defence-related expenditure. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur presented the second and final batch of supplementary demands for grants in the Lok Sabha.
He was diagnosed with three blocked coronary arteries, following which a stent was inserted in one to remove the blockage.
Union Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will skip his boss Pranab Mukherjee's Budget presentation on Friday.
Several political leaders were photographed celebrating raksha bandhan, some of them with students and small children.
The list of negatives on Kingfisher Airlines is getting longer.
A court has stayed an order to Reserve Bank of India to publicly name top 100 loan defaulters.
Senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kapil Sibbal, Raj Babbar, Vivek Tankha, Ghulam Nabi Azad will address an event in Jammu on Saturday which Manish Tiwari is also expected to join.
Later, there may be some tax relief aimed at the middle class and measures to benefit the sectors worst hit by Covid-19 and the resultant nationwide lockdown.
While bifurcation is a painful issue for many, one must understand it is the way forward, Union Minister of State for Finance J D Seelam tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
Bitcoin has been on fire ever since Musk announced that Tesla had bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency, and that his electric-vehicle company would accept bitcoin from buyers.
The party said it hoped that Ramachandran would be reinducted into the government just Defence Minister George\n\nFernandes's was after the Tehelka scam.
I challenge Rahul Baba that let me know if there is even a single line in the act regarding the withdrawal of anyone's citizenship, said Shah.
The Industrial Development Bank of India will be merged into its subsidiary IDBI Bank, in a reverse merger on similar lines as the merger of ICICI into its subsidiary ICICI Bank.
If the bribe-for-PPE-supply controversy in Himachal escalates, the BJP could have a lot to lose.
The government is examining a proposal for the merger of IDBI with the IDBI Bank, Union Minister of State for Finance Anandrao Adsul said in Jaipur on Friday.
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