by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Suresh Prabhu
New Delhi : Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for addressing exporters’ issues in the GST Council meeting, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday said his ministry would make maximum effort on promoting exports.
“Thx @narendramodi ji @arunjaitley for addressing the exporters issues in #GSTCouncil. We shall together work on promoting exports,” Prabhu said in a tweet following the 22nd meeting here of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council.
In a relief to exporters, the government on Friday announced that it would immediately refund exporters for the month of July and August through cheques from October 10 and October 18, respectively.
Following the day-long meeting of the GST Council, Jaitley told reporters that this would be an interim relief, and as a long term measure e-wallets will be created for all exporters by April 1, 2018, to carry forward the refund process.
“We are working in close coordination with @FinMinIndia to address GST related issues of exporters,” Prabhu had said earlier in a separate tweet.
Earlier on Friday, Prabhu met with stakeholders, including leading exporters, Export Promotion Councils, associations and industry chamber representatives.
“Had extensive discussions with stakeholders on strategies to boost exports.We will work together to ensure exports led growth,” he had tweeted after the meeting.
“We must align our standards with global standards. Benchmarking will stimulate exports,ensure India’s integration with global value chain,” he said in another tweet.
“We must enhance competencies, tap into the global value chain which will provide fillip to our efforts to enhance exports.”
According to an official release here, the Minister asked the export promotion councils and industry associations to prepare a vision statement for their product group.
“He also stressed on the importance of export led growth and assured stakeholders of working together to boost exports,” a Commerce Ministry statement here said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Sharad Pawar
Mumbai : Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said that public sentiment has gone against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre due to “all-round failures” like rising unemployment and factories shutting down and also attacked decisions like demonetisation and the GST.
“Unemployment is increasing all over the country, agriculture sector is distressed and farmers are killing themselves, there is high inflation, the financial sector has failed and the poor sections are very upset. The public mood is against the government and we must prepare for elections,” Pawar told media persons.
He said that with 67 textile companies shutting down rendering 17,600 people jobless, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys and Suzlon terminating thousands of services, Mahindra & Mahindra removing 17,000 employees, the coming days are going to be difficult for the country.
Besides, there are no fresh investments coming to the country. Slogans like ‘Make In India’ sounded very attractive initially, but have now proved to be hollow, Pawar pointed out.
He blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the current situation saying economic decisions like demonetization and GST taken by him without adequate preparations have taken a heavy toll on the economy.
Targetting Modi’s pet project of the Bullet Train, the NCP chief said instead of reducing the sufferings of the Mumbai commuters, the (Bullet Train) project is being brought here “which will help Japan come out of the economic recession it is facing”.
Though it is the fastest train in Japan it does not have a market there and the project will help reduce that country’s ongoing economic crisis, he said.
He showed a video clip of Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister, in which he had said that the Bullet Train would be a showpiece project and nobody would travel by it.
“There are only four stations of Bullet Train in Maharashtra and a 35-minute long journey. Then why should the state provide half the funds for the project?” Pawar demanded, adding it should have been implemented on other sectors instead of Mumbai-Ahmedabad.
On last week’s stampede which killed 23 commuters on a narrow railway foot overbridge connecting Elphinstone Road-Parel, Pawar cited the example of the then Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who resigned after a railway disaster, “but that is unlikely to happen now.”
Giving a call to the party to prepare for elections, Pawar predicted that wherever the BJP is in power, it will hold simultaneous state assembly and Lok Sabha elections, and “the NCP must prepare accordingly”.
The people vent their frustrations through social media and the government is “retaliating” by sending them (police) notices – “What you sowed through social media, now you are reaping”, said Pawar.
“In a democracy, every citizen has a right to express himself. The government should not try to threaten the people by sending them notices and attempt to curb individual liberties,” Pawar said.
Attacking the ruling BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, he said the government had promised a complete waiver of farm loans, then why are the farmers being asked to fill up different types of forms to establish the eligibility criteria.
Pawar announced a convention of all farmers organisations at Aurangabad on November 5 to be followed by a non-cooperation movement if the government does not give the farm loans waiver by Diwali, an anti-inflation agitation across the state followed by a farmers’ agitation with support of like-minded parties, which he would lead.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Finance, News, Politics
New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said Goods and Services Tax (GST) slabs may be reduced in the future if a “revenue neutral plus” tax level is reached.
Jaitley made the remark at the “Foundation Day” event of the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes and Narcotics (NACIN).
According to the Minister, reduction in tax slabs under the current GST regime can happen but only after the regime reaches a “revenue neutral plus” level.
Since July 1, GST has replaced around a dozen central and state taxes into a single national tax.
At present, there are four tax slabs of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent, plus a levy on cesses on luxury items like cars, aerated drinks and tobacco products to compensate states for any revenue losses in the first five years.
An overwhelming 81 per cent of items under the GST regime attract tax of 18 per cent or below and only about 19 per cent of items are taxed at the highest rate of 28 per cent.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Economy, News, Politics
Yashwant Sinha
New Delhi : Stepping up his attack on the government’s management of the economy, senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Thursday said the Finance Ministry failed to address the problem of non-performing assets (NPAs) and the opposition Congress cannot be blamed for the “mess” in the economy.
A day after creating a political storm through his critique published in the Indian Express that led to a debate in the country over the state of the economy, Sinha justified his criticism of the economy while talking to various television channels on Thursday.
“The first serious task of the government should have been to solve the NPAs issue, plaguing the banking sector and holding back the economy. Around 40 months have elapsed since the government took over and the bad loans crisis looks nowhere near resolution,” Sinha told a news channel.
He said the economy was in bad shape for a long time because the government failed to analyse the effects of demonetisation and gave another shock in the form of the Goods and Services Tax. “They (Demonetisation and GST) played a big role in the decline of the economy,” he said.
“I am not judging on the basis of one quarter. The economy is falling from the last six quarters. I hope the government will wake up and the economy will catch the pace,” he said.
He said the government had failed to do a detailed analysis of the effects that demonetisation and GST would have on the economy.
“They should have analysed the effect of the note ban on employment and the overall economy,” Sinha said adding that the effects of demonetisation hadn’t subsided when the economy had to bear the brunt of another shock in the form of GST.
While supporting the idea of cashless economy, Sinha, however, said the move to suddenly impose it via the note ban was flawed.
“Even developed countries use cash to the extent of 40 per cent of the economy. India is a developing country where the agricultural sector, a cash-intensive sector, employs a lot of people. If you suddenly force cashlessness, it is going to create havoc,” he said.
The former Finance Minister said that a falling economy does not create employment.
“The economy is not something that can be fixed overnight. No one has a magic wand. It took us four years to get the economy back on track,” he said.
Responding to government claims that it inherited the economy in a bad shape from the previous UPA regime, Sinha said the Congress cannot be blamed for the mess in the economy as the Narendra Modi government has completed more than three years in power.
“There was a constant downfall in the economy, but I did not speak. We cannot blame the previous government any more because we have been in power for 40 months and got full opportunity to correct things,” he said.
“I was a supporter of GST. The government was in a hurry to implement it from July. Now, GSTN, which is the backbone, is failing,” he said.
On being asked about defence of the government by Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, Sinha said: “Rajnath Singh and Piyush Goyal seem to know the economy better than me.”
Asked about his son and union minister Jayant Sinha’s rebuttal of his claims in an article in the Times of India, Yashwant Sinha said: “If he (Jayant) was competent to answer my criticism, then why was he shifted from the Finance Ministry.”
To a question why he was not airing his views in party fora, Sinha said there was no platform available within the party. “In fact, I had asked for an appointment with the PM a year ago… still he has not given me time….”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Bhubaneswar : The Odisha government has incurred a loss of an estimated Rs 525 crore in two months after the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system from July 1, state Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said on Monday.
“Considering the 14 per cent growth in commercial tax collection in the last financial year, we were expecting to collect Rs 2,393 crore in July and August. However, we have collected Rs 1,868 crore in these two months, which is Rs 525 crore less than the target,” Behera told media persons here.
He said the state government would demand the Centre to compensate the loss.
The Minister said the GST on handicraft and handloom products has been slashed by the GST Council to 12 per cent from the existing 18 per cent.
He said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had sought full tax exemption on handicraft and handloom products.
“Considering the demands of Odisha, the GST Council reduced the tax rate on other handicraft goods from 18 per cent to 12 per cent,” said Behera.
The Minister said the GST Council has also exempted clay idols from tax, which was 28 per cent earlier.
The tax on ‘sabai grass’ weaving ropes and ‘sal’ leaf plates and cups was slashed to 5 per cent from 18 per cent while tax on clay sculpture was fully withdrawn, Behera said.
The tax on stone sculptures was slashed to 12 per cent from 28 per cent while tax on khadi clothes and fabrics sold by organisations certified by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission has been slashed, he added.
—IANS
