| Regulatory pitfalls again | 04-AUG-09 |
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| With the mobile phone industry adding 10 million new subscribers each month, and a severe spectrum crunch having resulted, it is not surprising that the government is confident of getting big money when it auctions the 3G/Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum; it increased the estimate for this from Rs 20,000 crore in the Interim Budget to Rs 35,000 crore in the latest Budget. And since there was a difference of opinion between the finance and communications ministries on what the minimum reserve price for the 3G auction should be (finance wanted double the Rs 2,020 crore that communications wanted), the Prime Minister has been quick to set up a Group of Ministers to decide on the issue. The GoM will also decide on issues like the number of slots that are to be offered, the annual revenue-share licence fees, and so on. |
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| Widest deficit since reforms began | 07-JUL-09 |
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| Fiscal deficit, the difference between the government’s total expenditure and receipts, is projected at 6.8 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, in the current financial year, the widest in two decades. |
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| Mamata's bounty for Bengal, bypassing Bihar | 04-JUL-09 |
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| The railway budget presented by Mamata Banerjee on Friday reflected her politics. She extended a bounty of new projects and trains to her home state, West Bengal, and gave Bihar, the home state of former railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, a miss. |
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| Railways to up plan outlay, despite hit on resource generation | 03-JUL-09 |
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| The increased expenditure would be incurred even as the Railways would not be able to generate most of the funds through the Public Private Partnership model as was expected by the former Railways Minister Lalu Prasad in the interim budget. |
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| Excise cuts may be selectively withdrawn to boost revenues | 13-JUN-09 |
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| The Union finance ministry is considering an increase in the central excise duty for some of the products that had benefited from the two rounds of reductions announced by the government as part of its fiscal stimulus measures last year. |
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| Again, belated action | 06-MAR-09 |
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| The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) finally did on Wednesday evening what had been anticipated since the presentation of the Interim Budget on February 16, and what it should almost certainly have done at the time of its last quarterly review in January. The Budget estimated that the fiscal deficit would be 6 per cent of GDP, which implied a significant increase in the government’s borrowing requirements during the current year. |
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| Army left with 41% of allocated funds | 26-FEB-09 |
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| The Army is yet to spend 41 per cent of the funds allocated for purchasing equipment in the 2008-09 Budget. The revised estimate of funds allocated to procure equipment in 2008-09 was Rs 15,615.5 crore, of which Rs 9,220.22 crore, or 59 per cent, have been spent so far. |
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