Page 34 - Budget 2018

Govt plans to boost Rs 13-trn tourism, travel sector in Budget 2018

India's tourism sector grew over 1% in the six months ending September

Budget to focus on infrastructure, rural sectors, says Arun Jaitley

In another event, he said improved macroeconomic fundamentals had placed India on the growth trajectory of 7-8 per cent

Remove long-term capital gains tax exemption: BSE

One of the most important stock market participants is making a case for reinstating of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax on equity investments. According to sources, the BSE has made a presentation to the Union finance ministry that LTCG exemptions cause huge revenues loss to the government and also lead to market manipulation. LTCG is tax-exempt on the sale of listed securities, since 2005. This had made India one of the most liberal markets in this regard, BSE said in a presentation last Friday. LTCG are profits on sale of shares on a stock exchange platform after a holding period of at least a year. Short-term capital gains (STCG) are profits on sale of shares held for less than 12 months; these are taxed at a flat 15 per cent. "Since India has one of the lowest tax collection to GDP (gross domestic product) ratio within G-20 countries, every effort must be taken to shore up the revenue collection. LTCG taxation could help," it had reportedly said.The exchange pegs the loss to ...

Direct tax officials seek cut in collection target

Slide in investment raises fears of lower mop up of direct tax this financial year

Pensioners, India Inc may get tax breaks in Budget

No big-bang measures expected, say finance ministry officials

Tweaking the fiscal road map

Already, 96% of the annual fiscal deficit target has been reached by the end of October 2017

FinMin weighs fiscal cost of corporation tax cut

In the 2015-16 Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had promised a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent in four years

Letters: Budget expectations

The exemption limit for the salaried class should be pegged at a higher level

Budget 2018: Govt stares at fiscal wall on rural spending path

The 2018-19 Budget might assume an average crude oil price of $65 a barrel

Populist Budgets don't win elections: Will Jaitley heed lessons of history?

Populist Budgets before a general election have worked only once, the first time, in 1970

Budget 2018: FY19 fiscal deficit target may be set higher than 3%

With the stated aim of 3.2% of GDP unlikely to be met, govt may decide to make this the target for the coming year

From CCTV cameras to more washrooms: Railways puts women's safety on track

Modi govt likely to announce 2018 as the year of women's safety in Railways in the upcoming Budget

Modi's aim to contain fiscal deficit: Two options exist, both are painful

The government has opted for borrowing Rs 500 billion in excess of the Rs 5.80 trillion Budget Estimate

What a widening fiscal deficit could mean

After weeks of stress and tension over a widening deficit, you could actually see the government claiming on February 1 a significantly reduced slippage in its fiscal deficit

Balancing act on fiscal deficit

The growth and buoyancy of direct tax revenue in the 2014-2017 period is lower than in any sub-period this millennium

Ficci urges govt to bring down corporate tax to 28% in Budget 2018

The government is slated to come out with the advanced estimates for the current fiscal on Friday

Budget session of Parliament to begin from Jan 29; Union Budget on Feb 1

The first phase of the session will be from January 29 to February 9

Budget 2018: PM Modi likely to meet economists on Jan 10

Union Budget 2018-19, which will be the final budget for PM Modi-led NDA regime before the 2019 general elections, will be presented on Feb 1

Budget 2018: 9 suggestions for Arun Jaitley to step up public expenditure

Stepped up public expenditure need to be accompanied by a set of focused policies. Here are nine suggestions

Wide gap between higher and lower ranked districts

An interesting - and intuitive - characteristic of the list of 115 backward districts is that the top-ranked - worst-off - districts on all parameters belong to northern states, while the best performers among the backward districts are spread across the country. Warangal district in Telangana, Narmada district in Gujarat, East Sikkim district in Sikkim, and Kiphire in Nagaland perform the best among the laggards on health, infrastructure, education, and prosperity (poverty). Surprisingly, the averages of development indicators for India as a whole lie between the best and the worst among the backward districts (see charts). As a result, the gap between the best and worst among the backward districts is suggestive of the diversity in India's development. The reason for including relatively well-off districts on the backward districts list is that even the most developed regions in India are under-developed by global standards. The list has exclusion errors - meaning all backward ...