GST Law is about to celebrate its third anniversary and it has been a roller coaster journey for the law. The GST Council and the government have been very proactive in making amendments in the law to give benefits to various stakeholders including consumers, businesses and field officers. However, there are still some concerns that are turning out to be roadblocks and not allowing the law to settle down completely.

Technological issues
In recent years, the Government has given a

The world economy will go into recession this year with a predicted loss of trillions of dollars of global income due to the coronavirus pandemic, spelling serious trouble for developing countries with the likely exception of India and China, according to a latest UN trade report.

With two-thirds of the world’s population living in developing countries facing unprecedented economic damage from the COVID-19 crisis, the UN is calling for a

If the budgetary expenditure for FY21 has to be maintained at the same level as budgeted, the Centre will have to allow a huge fiscal slippage from the budgeted 3.5% of the GDP and incur a fiscal deficit of 5% or higher, owing to the Covid-19 fallout of a much-reduced economic growth and consequent sluggishness in tax receipts.

FE has estimated that just the two high-probable eventualities of nominal GDP size in FY21 being some

Even as alcohol for human consumption is outside the Goods and Services Tax (GST) purview, the bottles used to sell ‘liquid courage’ have been found to be at the centre of an unfolding investigation into tax evasion. After the first case in Rajasthan was discovered late last year, GST authorities have alerted all zones, saying this modus operandi could have been adopted by other tax payers as well, officials familiar with the case said.

The case

India has unveiled both fiscal and monetary policy stimulus measures to minimise the negative impact of the coronavirus on economic activities and address the needs of the poor, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar told FE’s Prasanta Sahu in an interview. He said the Thursday’s economic package was rightly targeted at the most vulnerable segments of the society. Edited excerpts.

What is your view on the relief package announced by the finance minister on Thursday?

The package announced by the finance minister is rightly targeted, ensuring that the most vulnerable segments of the society do not

Reserve Bank of India Governor, Shaktikanta Das addressing a press conference announced that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) met ahead of time and voted for an emergency rate cut of 75 basis point, effectively taking the repo rate to 4.4% from the earlier 5.15%. Das, further added that the MPC refrained from projecting inflation and growth this time as the situation was too volatile. To help India tide over the Coronavirus pandemic, RBI announced comprehensive package, including, measures to expand

Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday said the government is monitoring the availability of essential commodities in the market amid nationwide lockdown for next 21 days to check the spread of coronavirus outbreak.

Paswan warned manufacturers and traders against profiteering during this period.

The Centre is also in touch with the state governments to ensure that there is no shortage of essential commodities, he said.

“In view of situation emerging from the threat of #Covid19India, the government is keeping

The Centre has asked state governments to transfer money to construction workers in distress from the designated cess funds at their disposal. According to an estimate, a total of Rs 52,000 crore is lying with the building and construction workers (BoCW) welfare boards across all states. From these funds, monies could be transferred ‘adequately’ to the accounts of an estimated 3.5 crore registered workers to help them tide over the present turbulent times, in the wake

Parliament on Monday passed the Finance Bill, 2020, clearing the way for significant changes in the tax laws, including a new monetary threshold for taxing India income of non-resident Indians (NRIs), a broadening of the ambit of ‘equalisation levy’ to cover non-resident e-commerce operators (like Alibaba) supplying goods and services and reduction in the rate of tax collected at source (TCS) for remitting education loan money overseas.

The government also used the Finance

When the Centre assumed tax buoyancy of 1.2 for FY21, as against just 0.5 seen in FY20 (revised estimate), many thought that it was optimistic, if not unrealistic. However, given the spread of Covid-19 and its impact on domestic and global demand, India’s economic growth could fall considerably from the budgeted level.

Assuming the actual nominal GDP growth for FY21 at 8% as