A once in a year opportunity for a commoner to communicate with India&rsquo;s most experienced FM &ndash; and, here I am availing of it.

Make growth top priority

Business Standard

Firstly, the FM needs to be applauded for his efforts to present an all-encompassing report on black money, its ill effects, and strategies to counter the menace and impact on the economy. The FM did stick to his assurance in the Parliament to present the paper which captures its complex relationship with policy and administrative regime in India.

Mukesh Butani: White paper on black money with grey areas!

Advocates regularly plead before the judiciary. This week, with earnest,I am pleading in a non-legalistic fashion before the FM,who represents the legislature, to reexamine some of his proposals for enacting retrospective laws.

Mukesh Butani: Are taxpayers paying the price of a turf battle?

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance under the chairmanship of former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented its recommendations on Direct Taxes Code (DTC). In its 364-page report, it has made some far reaching suggestions on implementation of the new code, some of which have been accepted by the Ministry of Finance.

Panel makes bold recommendations on DTC

The Economic Survey presented the UPA government&rsquo;s scorecard for 2011-12. Clearly, there weren&rsquo;t too many surprises on the macroeconomic front. A tapered estimate of economic growth at 6.9 per cent, reduced from the mid-year revised target of 8.2 per cent, and a fiscal deficit at 5.9 per cent (versus the target of 4.6 per cent) underlined stress on fiscal health.

Mukesh Butani: A mixed bag of taxes

In India&rsquo;s most vigorously contested tax dispute, on Friday, a three-member bench of the Apex Court pronounced its verdict vindicating Vodafone&rsquo;s stand questioning the jurisdiction of the tax administration. The controversy which assumed unprecedented media visibility in the past few years surrounded Vodafone&rsquo;s obligation to withhold tax on alleged capital gains that Hong Kong based Hutch group made in relation to USD 11 billion investment (Vodafone) made for acquiring controlling interest in a telecom license.

Mukesh Butani