The proposed dual GST is an ambitious bid to reform the present indirect tax regime with an aim to introducing a common market for goods and services in India with a uniform countrywide tax structure. Once implemented, the GST will subsume the current set of multiple taxes such as central excise, service tax, state VAT, surcharges and cesses. The first discussion paper on the GST, released by the Empowered Committee in November 2009, provides a broad framework of the proposed tax.

GST treatment of telecommunication sector

Business Standard

IN an order sympathetic to public authorities who delay filing of appeals far beyond prescribed time limits, the Supreme Court has stated that their petitions should not be &ldquo;thrown out on technicalities&rdquo;. The court asserted that &ldquo;in the legal arena, an attempt should always be made to allow the matter to be contested on merits, unless mala fides are writ large on the conduct of the party.&rdquo; This statement in the judgment, Improvement Trust, Ludhiana vs Ujagar Singh, comes in the wake of criticism against government authorities like the revenue department which take years to file appeals in lost cases. In this case, the trust acquired land from four land owners in 1989 but did not pay the owners. They had to move the court for the amount. It ordered attachment of the trust land to pay the owners. A company bought the land in auction. It was only then the trust &ldquo;woke up from its slumber&rdquo; and filed objections.

Technicalities should not choke justice on merits

Why is it that we are determined to learn all the wrong lessons from the Bhopal tragedy? It is not just hysterical talk shows with witch-hunting anchors bothered only about the latest TRPs that obscure the major issues. Even serious commentators use the occasion not to address the major fault lines in our response to industrial accidents but to concentrate on non-issues.

Michael Pinto: Non-issues hijack Bhopal debate

Last week&rsquo;s unceremonious dismissal by US President Barack Obama of his military commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Stanley McChrystal, should be carefully studied in this country. In contrast to India, where civil-military relations remain mired in wary mutual watchfulness, America has demonstrated a robust civil-military structure with a healthy tolerance for risk.

Ajai Shukla: McChrystal-gazing

High salt content of the soil is a major problem that confronts farmers in several parts of the country. Commonly referred to as soil salinity, this malady impairs soil health, resulting in poor crop yields. In extreme cases, it renders the land unfit for cultivation.

Surinder Sud: Tackling soil salinity

At a time when central banks around the world are getting empowered to deal with a range of market- and growth-related challenges, it is disturbing to see the government of India use the subterfuge of a weekend ordinance to diminish the status of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Devaluing RBI

The G20 summit in Toronto has sought to ensure that nothing will be done to threaten the global recovery process, described by some as &ldquo;feeble&rdquo;, and create a double-dip depression. It is reassuring that the leaders of the economically most important nations have undertaken to carry out their adjustment processes in such a way that recovery in private demand is sustained. The concession made to political realities is that countries will adopt a &ldquo;differentiated and tailored approach&rdquo; in restoring their fiscal balance, meaning they will go about it the way it suits them best. If Britain wishes to undertake fiscal correction right away and Germany from next year, then they will be free to do so. But G20 members have also agreed that they will progress towards &ldquo;rebalancing&rdquo; global demand. Rich countries whose citizens have been acquiring a mountain of debt should boost national savings and surplus countries should boost domestic growth.

One step forward

The Nifty is seeing a short-term correction. There is reasonable support between 5,200 and 5,250. The intermediate trend turned positive about five weeks ago. So, there is time for it to register gains for another five-six weeks.

Big players have been negative

Some called it the &ldquo;mixed economy&rdquo;, some called it the &ldquo;mixed-up economy&rdquo;, some others termed it state capitalism and some even dubbed it a &ldquo;bureaucratic socialist&rdquo; economy. For the first 50 years after Independence, the Indian economy has been described by many epithets. The bottom line was, of course, the fact that a large part of India&rsquo;s modern industrial and services economy was in the public, or state, sector. While the agricultural economy was largely characterised by private ownership, manufacturing was predominantly in the public sector till the 1980s, and following the nationalisation of banks, the financial sector too was dominated by state-owned institutions. All that began to change in the 1980s. The 1990s witnessed dramatic changes in policy and the unleashing of Indian enterprise. However, it is only since 2000 that private Indian enterprise has come into its own.

Enterprise India

The new Direct Taxes Code (DTC) has been put in the public domain and will most likely be up for debate in the monsoon session of Parliament. There are three major components to the code &mdash; personal income taxes, treatment of capital gains, and corporate taxes. This and the next article will talk about the first two.

Surjit S Bhalla: Sense in Tax Code

The complex in Chandigarh that has the largest number of rooms with all boarding and lodging facilities is not a five-star hotel. It belongs to Infosys Technologies. The information technology giant&rsquo;s special economic zone (SEZ) in Chandigarh, built on an area of 30 acres, has about 200 rooms, which offer facilities that will be the envy of any five-star hotel.

A K Bhattacharya: Nipping an idea in the bud

Ministers who speak and act out of turn have been a blight on coalition governments and a delight for the mass media in recent times. There is another brand of loose cannons that passes orders sitting in ministers&rsquo; chambers without following the rules of business. The first sort causes embarrassment; the second type goes further and invites charges of corruption.

M J Antony: Bending rules of business

Dilution of the core principle of accountability will mean double standards, but punishing those who are not directly responsible will deprive companies of valuable talent.

Are independent directors liable?

Strawberries, cherries, and an angel&rsquo;s kiss in spring/my summer wine is really made from all these things&rdquo; went that old Nancy Sinatra song &mdash; terrific imagery there, makes one want to go rushing out to buy the stuff, never mind that in India we have virtually no spring, and summer&rsquo;s already here.

Summer wine

Earlier this week the Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Volodymyr Lytvyn, conducted the day&rsquo;s voting from behind two or three ordinary large black umbrellas held open before him by his security. This was to prevent any further eggs from hitting him, though at least one of the many hurled by members of the house was in yellow bloom upon his quite sharp suit.

Blood on the House floor

John Grisham, who writes one bestseller a year, found fame with The Firm, but before that he wrote a novel set in the milieu he knew well. A Time to Kill was set in Ford County, Mississippi, in America&rsquo;s Deep South, and the story was predictably driven by black and white politics. A lawyer must defend a black man who has killed two men guilty of raping his daughter. It sounds like a simple matter to get him off, but the case gets out of hand.

Criminal law

Let there be no doubt in anyone&rsquo;s mind that this government is committed to the right to privacy and the right to liberty. (Interruptions).

'NTRO is not an invention of the UPA government'

Many of us were surprised to see you as the first speaker for your party in a recent Rajya Sabha debate on the Naxal menace.

'Naxals have to be tackled politically'

Mark Hibbs, currently a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and formerly a well-known and respected correspondent who covered nuclear issues for Nucleonics Week and Nuclear Fuel, reports that China is soon expected to announce the export of two new reactors to Pakistan in addition to the two that it is already working on in Pakistan.

G Balachandran: A crippling blow to global disarmament?

A conservative investor should start booking profits and move it to short-term debt.

Feeling uncomfortable?

A volcanic eruption led to a week-long closure of airports in Europe in April, resulting in delays in delivery of goods and documents under letters of credit (LC). Readers have sent in some queries in this regard. Here are the answers.

Acts of God don't impress banks

Business Standard brings you expert opinions on various issues

Page 781 - Opinion Specials