Enthused by improvement in India’s rank in WEF’s Competitiveness Index, the government exuded confidence that the country will witness a similar gain in the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking and it may also prompt a sovereign ratings upgrade. Although global credit rat…
Tag: Arun Jaitley
World Tourism Day Special: Travel start-ups to spin the tourism era
Travel based startups have of late been getting more funding than even e-commerce portals. Travel startups are also witnessing a boom for past two years. According to research firm Tracxn’s data, first half of this year saw $457.67 million in funding versus $75.4 million during the same period in…
GST council sets exemption threshold for tax at Rs. 20 lakh
Giving relief to small businesses, the Goods & Services Tax (GST) Council has decided that threshold for exemption for businesses would be an annual turnover of Rs. 20 lakh, while the businesses in the Northeastern and hill states with annual turnover below Rs. 10 lakh would be out of the GST…
Interest of small businesses protected: GST Panel Chief Amit Mitra
With the Centre and states agreeing to keep traders with turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh out of the GST ambit, interest of small traders has been protected, West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra said on September 23. Hailing the decisions reached at the first meeting of GST Council, he said more t…
Arun Jaitley inaugurates start-up school at LPU
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated start-up school at Lovely Professional University’s (LPU) Chaheru campus. Addressing the students, he said, “I wish to see many upfront entrepreneurs from LPU”. The US, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea have advanced in technology and res…
GST rollout a hell of a challenge, says Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka
Describing GST rollout “a hell of a challenge”, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka acknowledged that there are pockets of weak preparedness, but there is still time to address them before the April 2017 deadline. “There are many pockets where there is weak preparedness at this moment. But we have time bet…
President gives nod to GST Bill; 60 days’ countdown to GST Council begins
Turning years of wait into reality, the Constitutional Amendment Bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST) received Presidential assent on September 9 and turned into a law. The consent has moved the government a step closer to do away with indirect taxes. Next on agenda is formulation of the GST Coun…
GST: Why Arun Jaitley needs to insist on low rates; hike on gold
With enough states ratifying the constitutional amendment for GST, it is just a matter of time before the GST Council is set up and serious negotiations begin on the revenue neutral rate (RNR) as well as the standard rate and the commodities that will be taxed at the merit/standard/demerit rates.…
Sitharaman pitches for cut in repo rate to help MSMEs
Making a strong case for providing medium & small manufacturers and exporters with cheaper credit, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on August 24 pitched for a cut in the repo rate by as much as 200 basis points to help the cash-starved Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSM…
Amendment to Companies Act will help boost fund flow for MSMEs: Arun Jaitley
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said amendments to the Companies Act 2013 being considered by Parliament will help ease institutional fund flow to small businesses, acknowledging this has been an issue with the MSME sector that has also not received adequate policy attention. “There were …