New Delhi, Nov 21,2021: As Centre gears up to start consultation with industry for Union Budget, industry body PHDCCI has proposed to keep personal income tax, corporate tax and peak GST rate all at 15% in order to boost demand and investment in the country.
Speaking to UNI, PHDCCI President Pradeep Multani said that personal income tax should be cut to 15% from the peak rate of 35% now in order to increase disposable income of the people which would lead to push demand curve.
“As regards corporate tax, our view is that whether it is proprietorship, LLPs (limited liability partnerships) and corporates, whether old or new, there should be one uniform corporate tax of 15% across the board,” Multani said.
Offering mega concession to the industry, the central government had in September 2019 slashed corporate tax rates to 22% for domestic companies and 15% for new domestic manufacturing companies besides other fiscal reliefs. The total annual revenue foregone for the reduction in corporate tax rate and other relief were estimated at Rs 1,45,000 crore.
PHDCCI Chief said that personal income tax is currently very high in the country because the base is low which means fewer people are paying taxes.
“It is higher than almost all the advanced and emerging economies. But still our tax-to-GDP ratio is only 17%. In peer economies like China, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia the average tax-to-GDP ratio is 22%,” he said attributing the low tax-GDP ratio in India to tax evasion.
“The tax evasion is high because of higher tax rates,” he noted.
Multani further said that the peak GST rate should not be more than 15% as the current highest slab of 28% tempts people to evade tax.
“If someone is buying a product worth Rs 100,000 and the peak GST rate of 28% is levied, then Rs 28,000 would be tax on that. If tax rate is so high, people would tend to evade tax,” he said.
In order to attract foreign investment and encourage domestic players to ramp up their businesses, Multani suggested effective implementation of single-window clearance and reduction in cost of doing business.
He proposed to the government to get an analysis carried out by experts on cost structure in China and provide a level-playing field to the Indian industry.
“Let government do the analysis of China. We don’t need even 0.1% extra. What we are saying that the incentives China is giving to its industry we should also get the same cost,” the PHDCCI Chief said.
New Delhi , October 17,202: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria on Sunday urged the Centre to reduce prices of petroleum products and bring Achhe Din for the common man.
Speaking to ANI, Bhadoria said, “We hear every day that petrol and diesel prices have increased. Petrol and diesel prices already scored a century. Even LPG cylinders are available for Rs 1,000. If you go to the farmers, they are saying that Diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertilizer is available at a cost of Rs 2000 in the black market.”
“I want to say that the government is giving relief neither to the farmers nor to the poor and the common man. Only some capitalists are flourishing here so the BJP government needs to bring ‘Acche din’ to the public,” he added.
Petrol and diesel prices continued to rise across the country for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday.
Petrol and diesel prices reached an all-time high as fuel rates continued to rise by 35 paise/litre across the country for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday. With the latest hike, the petrol price becomes Rs 105.84/litre while diesel will now cost Rs 94.57/litre in Delhi today.
Bengaluru, Aug 9,2021: BJP Karnataka’s Economic Cell State Convener Dr Samir Kagalkar said the formation of a new cooperation ministry will help achieve the $5 trillion mark by 2025 as it will give a major boost to the growth of the agriculture sector.
“The step of moving to the 5 trillion USD-mark by 2025 and to the 10 tTrillion USD economy status by 2030, will be impossible without the growth in the agricultural sector,” Kagalkar said in the state party unit’s blog.
Sadly, the agriculture sector was still put in chains by the Congress government when the entire country was a beneficiary of the reforms since 1991, he lamented.
Just about 17 percent of India’s GDP is contributed by agriculture, on which over 57 per cent of people depend, Kagalkar said.
“The inference is very clear, that unless there is a massive improvement in efficiency & productivity in the farm sector, the country as a whole cannot move to the prosperity level,” he said.
Only through economic prosperity can India root out poverty, bring in lots of social welfare measures for the needy, strengthen national security for a peaceful progress, Kagalkar said.
“In this regard, PM Narendra Modi has adopted the twin strategies of ease of doing business and ease of living,” he added.
To massively improve efficiency, the farm sector had to be liberalized, Kagalkar said.
In this regard, the Modi government came out with the truly historic agricultural reforms in 2019, liberalizing the sector and therefore enabling them to reap the benefits of reforms, Kagalkar said.
One of the key enablers to help the farm sector open up and benefit is the need for strong cooperation-based competition, he said.
To achieve this, the Modi government has announced massive subsidies, financial and other help to kick-start ten thousand FPOs that will act as the common platform based on cooperation to achieve their individual interests, he said.
The agricultural sector requires strong support from the government, to bring them at par with the other two sectors. And, it can be done by bringing in a new cooperation ministry, Kagalkar said.
New Delhi , August3,2021: The present percentage of blending of biodiesel in diesel is less than 0.1 per cent, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Monday and noted that National Policy on Biofuels, 2018 prescribes as indicative target of 5 per cent blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030.
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameshwar Teli said in a written reply that the government has taken various steps towards achieving 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol.
These include allowing use of sugarcane and foodgrains (maize and surplus stocks of rice with Food Corporation of India) for conversion to ethanol, administered price mechanism for procurement of ethanol under EBP Programme including the enhanced ex-mill price of ethanol year-on-year from ethanol supply year 2017.
The measures also include lowering GST rate to 5 per cent on ethanol for EBP Programme, amending Industries (Development & Regulation) Act for free movement of ethanol, interest subvention scheme for enhancement and augmentation of ethanol production capacity in the country.
He said the average ethanol blending percentage in petrol for the ethanol supply year 2020-21 is eight per cent as on July 26 this year.
“The present percentage of blending of biodiesel in diesel is less than 0.1 per cent. The National Policy on Biofuels, 2018, prescribes as indicative target of 5 per cent blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030,” he said.
The minister said that availability of biodiesel has been low in the last few years due to the increase of price and non-availability of feedstock for biodiesel.
Some biodiesel is also being marketed by agencies other than oil marketing companies.
“To increase the supply of biodiesel in the country, OMCs are regularly floating Expression of Interest (EoI) to encourage the production of biodiesel from used cooking oil,” he said.
Washington [US], July 28,2021: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday has scaled down India’s growth to 9.5 per cent for the current financial year from 12.5 per cent estimated earlier in April.
As per the World Economic Outlook (WEO) report released by IMF, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection is at 9.5 per cent for 2021-22.
It has also revised the GDP growth for FY 2022-23 to 8.5 per cent.
The IMF has projected the global economy to grow at 6 per cent in 2021 and 4.9 per cent in 2022.
“The IMF projects the global economy to grow at 6 per cent in 2021 and 4.9 per cent in 2022. The recovery remains uneven across regions, depending on access to vaccines. More in the updated World Economic Outlook,” IMF said in a tweet.
The IMF projected China to grow at 8.1 and 5.7 in 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively.
India witnessed a strong second wave of COVID-19 earlier this year.
The report said that vaccine access has emerged as the principal fault line along which the global recovery has splits into two blocs: those that can look forward to further normalization of activity later this year (almost all advanced economies) and those that will still face resurgent infections and rising COVID death tolls.
May02,2021: Targets for climate finance and girls’ education will top the agenda at a meeting this week of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven advanced economies, this year’s chair Britain said on Sunday.
The London summit will be the first attended in person by G7 foreign ministers for two years. Britain has also invited representatives from Australia, India, South Korea and South Africa as guests for some of the meetings.
“We’ll be taking action to ensure fair access to vaccines around the world, setting global girls’ education targets, agreeing ambitious action on climate change and developing new measures to prevent famine,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement.
Raab will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday, when they will talk about trade, China, Afghanistan and Iran, the British government said.
He will also host the Japanese and Indian foreign ministers at his country residence later in the week.
New Delhi, Mar 23,2021: Central government’s tax collections on petrol and diesel have jumped over 300 per cent in the last six years as excise duty on the two fuels was hiked, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
The central government collected Rs 29,279 crore from excise duty on petrol and Rs 42,881 crore on diesel in 2014-15 — the first year of office of the Modi government.
The collections on petrol and diesel rose to Rs 2.94 lakh crore in the first 10 months of the current fiscal (2020-21), according to information furnished by Minister of State Anurag Singh Thakur in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.
Together with excise duty on natural gas, the central government in 2014-15 collected Rs 74,158 crore which has gone up to Rs 2.95 lakh crore in April 2020 to January 2021 period.
He said taxes collected on petrol, diesel and natural gas as a percentage of total revenue have gone up from 5.4 per cent in 2014-15 to 12.2 per cent this fiscal.
Excise duty on petrol has been raised from Rs 9.48 per litre in 2014 to Rs 32.90 a litre now while the same on diesel has gone up from Rs 3.56 a litre to Rs 31.80.
Taxes make up for 60 per cent of the present retail price of petrol of Rs 91.17 a litre in Delhi. Excise duty makes up for 36 per cent of the retail price.
Over 53 per cent of the retail selling price of Rs 81.47 a litre of diesel in Delhi is made up of taxes. As much as 39 per cent of the retail price comprises of central excise.
“The total central excise duty (including basic excise duty, cesses and surcharge) was increased by Rs 3 per litre on petrol and diesel with effect from March 14, 2020. It was further revised upwards by Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel with effect from May 6, 2020,” Thakur said.
These increases took away the gain that would have accrued to consumers from a sharp drop in international oil prices.
The hike in excise duty is similar to the increase in taxes the government did between November 2014 and January 2016.
Over nine instalments, duty on petrol rate was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in those 15 months.
The government had cut excise duty by Rs 2 in October 2017, and by Rs 1.50 a year later. But it raised excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in July 2019.
“The excise duty rates have been calibrated to generate resources for infrastructure and other developmental items of expenditure keeping in view the present fiscal position,” he added.
Brussels [Belgium], March 6,2021: The United States and the European Union agreed to temporarily suspend tariffs levied on billions of dollars of each others’ aircraft, wine, food and other products for a four-month period.
According to The New York Times, US President Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, agreed in a phone call on Friday to suspend all tariffs imposed in the dispute over subsidies given to Boeing and Airbus for “an initial period of four months,” von der Leyen said in a statement.
The suspension allows both sides to focus on resolving this long-running dispute. It provides an important boost to EU exporters since the U.S. had been authorised to raise tariffs on $7.5 billion of EU exports to the U.S. Similarly, EU tariffs will be suspended on some $4 billion worth of U.S. exports into the EU, according to the European Commission.
“President Biden and I agreed to suspend all our tariffs imposed in the context of the Airbus-Boeing disputes, both on aircraft and non-aircraft products, for an initial period of 4 months,” she said.
“We both committed to focusing on resolving our aircraft disputes, based on the work our respective trade representatives. This is excellent news for businesses and industries on both sides of the Atlantic, and a very positive signal for our economic cooperation in the years to come,” Von der Leyen added.
According to a White House statement, Biden “underscored his support for the European Union and his commitment to repair and revitalize the U.S.-EU partnership.”
“Noting our shared values and the world’s largest trade and investment relationship, the leaders agreed to suspend the tariffs related to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Aircraft disputes for four months and to work toward resolving these long-running disputes at the WTO,” The White House said.
NYT further reported that The World Trade Organization had authorized both the United States and Europe to impose tariffs on each other as part of two parallel disputes, which began almost two decades ago, over subsidies the governments have given to Airbus and Boeing.
The EU had imposed tariffs on roughly $4 billion of American products, while the United States levied tariffs on $7.5 billion of European goods.
Former President Donald Trump took a “more adversarial and aggressive stance” toward the bloc. He accused it of cheating the United States on trade and imposed tariffs on European metals, aircraft and other products. Trump also threatened further tariffs against European automakers.
The Biden administration has said it would restore ties with the E.U., formerly a close ally, as it seeks to form coalitions to take on bigger global problems, like China’s unfair trade practices. The US has committed to pressing Europe for a settlement on the aircraft dispute, as well as other continuing trade spats over metals, digital service taxes and other issues, according to NYT.
“Finally, we are emerging from the trade war between the United States and Europe, which created only losers,” Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, said on Twitter adding that a burden would be lifted for French winegrowers, whose sales have been pummeled by steep retaliatory tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on imports to the United States.
In a joint statement with the European Union, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said the suspension would take effect “as soon as the internal procedures on both sides are completed” and that the agreement signaled “the determination of both sides to embark on a fresh start in the relationship.”
New Delhi, Feb 28,2021: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for making India the next global hub for manufacturing and sourcing of toys by attracting investments in the sector and promoting exports.
Mr Modi made the statement while virtually inaugurating the four-day India Toy Fair 2021 here.
Addressing more than 1,000 exhibitors, the Prime Minister called for bringing out the hidden potential of the toy industry in India and to create an identity for it as a big part of the campaign for AtmaNirbhar Bharat.
‘This first toy fair is not just a business or economic event. This program is a link to strengthen the country’s age-old culture of sports and cheer,’ he said, adding that the event is a platform where one can discuss all the aspects of the industry and exchange ideas.
Research on toys has been going since the era of Indus Valley civilization, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa, he said.
Mr Modi appealed to the country’s toy manufacturers to make toys that are better for both ecology and psychology! He asked them to make toys using things that can be recycled and less plastic.
Realising the importance of toys in the overall development of children, he said the Government has taken effective steps and brought changes through the New National Education Policy.
‘We can take the world back towards eco-friendly toys, through our software engineers computer games can bring the stories of India to the world’, he said. But despite all this, today India’s share in the $ 100 billion global toy market is very small. 85 per cent of the toys in the country are sourced from abroad, ‘ he stated. He stressed the need to change this situation.
Efforts are being made to strengthen the possibilities of toy tourism, the PM said. Toyathon-2021 was also organised to promote Indian sports based toys and more than 7000 ideas were brainstormed.
Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Nitin Gadkari and Union Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani also participated in the event.