The Parthasarathi Shome panel, looking into the taxation issues relating to General Anti-Avoidance Rules , GAAR is likely to submit its final report to Finance Minister P Chidambaram tomorrow. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July had set up a committee under tax expert Parthasarthi Shome to address concerns of foreign and domestic investors on GAAR. The committee had already submitted its draft report to the finance Minister on 1st of this month. The government had later expanded the scope of the expert committee on GAAR to include concerns of all non-resident tax payers. AIR correspondent reports that the committee in its draft report had recommended postponement of the controversial tax provision by three years and abolition of capital gains tax on transfer of securities. In order to address the concerns of Mauritius-based investors, the Shome panel had suggested that the provisions of the GAAR should not be invoked to examine the genuineness of the residency of an entity set up in Mauritius. In view of the concerns expressed by investors, the government had already postponed implementation of GAAR by a year to April, 2013. The proposal was introduced in Budget for 2012-13 by the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Announcement

The Finance Minister P Chidambaram has suggested creation of National Investment Board for speedy clearance of mega projects. He said the board headed by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh may take a investment proposals above 1000 crore rupees in the infrastructure sector. He said, the gross budgetary support during the plan period has been estimated at 35.68 lakh crore rupees which translates into 5.23 per cent of GDP over the five year period. Mr Chidambaram said direct cash transfer of subsidies in food, fertilisers and petroleum will help in the reduction of non-plan expenditure. He was speaking at the 12th plan panel meet on Saturday.

he Finance Minister, Mr. P. Chidambaram will inaugurate a conference of the Chief Commissioners and Directors General of Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax in New Delhi on Tuesday. The conference will focus mainly on ensuring clarity in indirect tax laws, a stable tax regime, a non- adversarial tax administration and a fair mechanism for dispute resolution. 

It will also cover the revenue performance including projection of revenue for the current year and reasons in shortfall if any and steps taken by the departments to promote manufacturing.

 Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has announced rescheduling of farm loans in drought affected states. Briefing the media after meeting the Chief Executives of Public Sector Banks and Financial institutions in New Delhi, he said credit will be provided to farmers for fodder and to maintain their cattle. He said assistance will also be given to them to raise alternate crops.

The Minister said 11.5 crore Kissan debit cards are being replaced by Debit - cum - ATM cards. The banks have been advised to double the number of 63,000 ATM's in the country and also convert them into cash accepting machines as well.

The Finance Minister asked the banks to cut interest rates, aggressively expand their operations and extend credit to vital sectors to revive economic growth. Mr. Chidambaram urged the banks to lower the EMIs on loans to encourage sale of consumer durables to step up growth in the manufacturing sector.

He asked the Industrial houses to work on implementaion of their projects to accelerate economic growth. He said procedures will be revised for easy sanction of education loans to students. Strict action will be taken against Branch managers, who deny loans to eligible students.

Pointing out that 11 lakh crore rupees lie as cash in the hands of the people, the Minister asked the Banks to mobilise savings. He said, ideal banking would be to have them in the banks.

He said, non performing assests of the banks have remained marginal in 2012 march, reflecting the slow down of the economy. But, he said, its level is not alarming and will improve as the economy picks up.

 The two topmost Finance Ministry officials- Revenue Secretary Mr R S Gujral and Expenditure Secretary Mr Sumit Bose- have been asked to swap their positions. An Finance Ministry official said Mr Sumit Bose has got the formal orders to assume charge as Revenue Secretary and Mr R S Gujral too have been informed to work as Expenditure Secretary. The key change comes within a week of Mr P Chidambaram taking charge as the Finance Minister on 1st of this month.

However, the official added that Mr Gujral being the senior most officer would continue to be the Finance Secretary. Mr Gujral was part of former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's team which came out with the proposal for introduction of the General Anti Avoidance Rules, GAAR for taxing overseas transitions.

he Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance is considering implementation of e-governance in the Debt Recovery Tribunals, DRTs, and Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals, DRATs.

An official release says, services of National Institute of Smart Governance, NISG, are being utilised as consultants for this purpose. With the implementation of e governance project, all processes in these tribunals will be computerized. 

The system would involve registration of the applicant and online submission of applications, all documents by the registered applicants, online issue of notices, orders and e-auctions.

The system would also provide for hearing of
cases through video conferencing, where ever required.

Our correspondent reports the representatives of NISG have studied the systems in the DRTs and DRATs and the Departments is in the process of issuing Request for Proposals and the implementing Agency will be finalised shortly.

The Finance Ministry has asked public sector banks not to accept bulk deposits beyond 15 per cent of total deposits to improve asset-liability management. This was informed by the Secretary Department of Banking and Financial Services D K Mittal on the sidelines of a meeting of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations in New Delhi today. Mr Mittal said the Finance Ministry has recently issued a circular to the banks in this regard.

Mr Mittal called upon exporters to desist from devaluing the domestic currency by trading in foreign currency, which creates problems for the government. He said exporters should focus on exporting goods and services rather than worrying about the fluctuations in the Rupee. On the export credit issue, the Secretary said, the government is committed to promoting exports. He said the issues raised by exporters require consultations with the RBI and the Commerce Ministry.

Commenting on the issue of HSBC bank’s Indian staff coming under the scanner of a US probe into money laundering, Mr Mittal said the RBI is looking into it. He said the finance ministry would assist the central bank with the required inputs

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee says, the government is not sitting idle on reforms and indicated a cut in interest rates by the RBI, in its review of Monitory policy tomorrow, to arrest the slowdown in Economic growth.

Addressing an Assocham conference in Mumbai yesterday, Mr Mukherjee said, the government is taking steps to address concerns expressed by global agencies like Standard & Poor's and the industry.

Indicating that the RBI too will be joining the government in dealing with the slowdown, he said he is confident that keeping in view all the factors, the RBI will adjust the monetary policy as the government is adjusting fiscal policy.

Mr Mukherjee listed the growing burden of petroleum subsidy as one of the difficult areas before the Centre for which he appealed to the states to reduce their taxes. He said he has written to the states that the Centre will also respond but it has to be balanced because if federal finance becomes weak, nobody will be able to bailout the Indian economy.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that India has signed treaties with 37 countries to know the details of black money stashed abroad. Addressing a meeting of Congress workers in Khargram in West Bengal on Sunday Finance Minister said all the money kept by Indians abroad is not black money. He said it might have been deposited by businessmen or business houses. The process will take time to know the exact amount.

Mr Mukherjee said the unrest in Syria and Libya had caused the increase in prices of petro products and fertilisers. He said the Potash was brought from these two countries but has now stopped due to political unrest there.

Finance Minister said the Centre's hands are tied to provide extra money to states as petro products and food need massive subsidy. 

He said the UPA government is committed to improving the country's socio-economic infrastructure and is taking steps in the direction. However, there are delays as Congress has to depend on allies and there are differences of opinion at times.

Referring to bad condition of rural roads, he said Prime Minister's Gram Sadak Yojana does not provide for money for maintenance and advised MLAS to inform the matter with the state government, which would in turn take up the matter with the Centre.

Concerned over rising bad loans, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today asked the banks to take steps to manage their non-performing assets (NPAs) which has grown on account of economic downturn. Mr. Mukherjee said NPAs have grown at an uncomfortable and unacceptable rate in the past couple of years.

The banks, he added, have to tread cautiously in the risks confronting the banking sector, especially the risks arising out of the asset quality, market volatility and the global downturn. 

The Minister talked about rising bad loans of the banking sector at a function to launch the 4001st branch of the Bank of India (BoI). Mukherjee inaugurated the branch at Manipur
through remote control. 

NPA of public sector banks was about 3.3 per cent of the assets in 2011-12 as against 2.3 per cent a year ago. Several companies are opting for corporate debt restructuring (CDR) to tide over the difficult financial situation in the ackdrop of slowdown. 

Later talking to reporters, Financial Services Secretary D K Mittal said that while NPAs are concern, there was othing to panic. He said NPAs is not something which means that assets are lost, it only means that these asset is not able to pay me for 90 days.Recovery by banks in the last quarter of 2011-12 was highest ever

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government is taking steps to arrest volatility in the foreign exchange market and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will intervene when necessary. Mr. Mukherjee said, as and when RBI will consider necessary they will intervene. He said, it depends on the market forces and the market forces are uncertain.

The Indian rupee slid to a fresh low of Rs 55.32 against the US dollar in the afternoon trade today as foreign funds pulled out from emerging markets avoiding risky assets. The rupee has been one of the worst performing currencies in Asia and has been consistently hitting lows in the last fortnight.

The rupee has lost over 22 per cent since the beginning of the year. To check the sliding rupee, RBI has taken a slew of policy steps to increase dollar flows, including relaxing interest rates caps on non-resident deposits. It had also asked exporters to convert half of their foreign currency earnings into rupee.

The statement on quarterly review of the trends and receipts and expenditure in relation to the Budget at the end of third quarter of 2011-12 was tabled by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament today. The statement said, uncertainties prevailing in the global economy at the time of presenting the Budget for 2011-12 turned out to be on the negative side and has impacted growth performance of the economy .

This, coupled with prevailing high international crude prices, has resulted in higher expenditure on subsidies for petroleum and fertilizer products. Also moderation in growth has impacted direct tax revenue receipts.

The volatility in capital market has resulted in recalibration of government's disinvestment strategy. The statement said, all these factors have a combined impact of deterioration in fiscal performance when compared to the Budget estimates 2011-12.

Accordingly, the fiscal deficit and revenue deficit estimates have been revised as 5.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Products respectively in the revised estimates for 2011-12.

 there is also currency crisis in emerging markets including Brazil.

At the forex market, the domestic currency has been falling against the US dollar over the past few days. 

Dealers said strong dollar demand from importers, mainly oil refiners, on expectation of further strengthening of the dollar, caused the rupee's fall. However, the Reserve Bank had stepped in and stemmed the rupee's slide.

The Government has came out with a number of austerity measures to cut down spending on foreign travel by ministers and officials, holding of meetings in five-star hotels and purchase of new cars by government departments in view of the tight economic situation.

Announcing the measures in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said the Government was committed to carry on the process of fiscal consolidation vigorously. 

In a bid to adhere to the budgetary fiscal targets and for better expenditure management, the Government will issue orders for strict compliance of austerity measures, he added.

The Minister's statement comes two days after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in the Rajya Sabha that the Government planned to announce some unpopular austerity measures to tighten the belt.

The Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has said that there is no need to panic in the wake of global rating agency, Standard and Poor's lowering India's rating outlook to negative. Reacting to the Outlook by the agency the Finance Minister expressed confidence that the country will overcome the difficulties faced by it and several bills regarding economic reforms will come up for consideration of Parliament in the current session. He however said some bills may be passed in the monsoon session.The lowering of outlook from stable to negative is expected to make external commercial borrowing expensive for Indian companies. It may also have implications for the capital market.

The government today said that the growth of sugar industry in the country is critical for rural development as 50 million farmers and their families are dependent on it. Addressing the 41st session of the International Sugar Council in New Delhi, the Finance Minister Mr Mukherjee said that the industry has supported employment in various ancillary activities. 

Mr. Mukherjee said that government has taken a number of steps to revitalise the sugar industry so that it is in a position to reap the advantages of free and growing market. The minster said that the government has been seeking to stablize sugar prices by moderating volatility during scarce and surplus domestic sugar seasons. 

Mr Mukherjee stressed the need to ensure that the sugar sector has access to the latest technology for enhancing production and productivity. He urged the Council to take necessary steps for collaborative research and development so that entire sugar industry across the world benefits from it.

Mr Mukherjee emphasised the importance of global co-operation in research and development of sugar technologies to unlock the full potential of the industry in developing countries.

Speaking on the ocassion Food and Consumer Affairs minister K V Thomas said that the main concern of the government is that sugarcane farmers get due share of their labour time and energies invested by them on the field.

he Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that the Reserve Bank of India, RBI's decision to cut lending rate by 0.50 per cent, will encourage investments. He assured that the government will also take additional steps to boost growth and control price rise. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Mr. Mukherjee said, the growth which has weakened in the past months, would now improve.
The Finance Minister said, moderation of core inflation rate for four months in a row and sharper decline in inflation for manufactured products from 7.6 per cent in December to 4.87 per cent in March, has facilitated the change in monetary policy stance.
In its annual monetary policy statement for 2012-13, the RBI, after a gap of three years, has cut interest rate by 0.50 per cent, making the credit cheaper.
AIR Correspondent reports that after clocking over 8 per cent economic growth for two years, India's GDP expansion is estimated to have declined to a 3-year low of 6.9 per cent in 2011-12 on account of high cost of borrowing that slowed investments. RBI had hiked policy rates 13 times between March 2010 and October 2011 to control persistently high inflation. It has projected the GDP growth for this fiscal at 7.3 per cent, which is lower than the government estimates of 7.6 per cent for the period.

Attributing the disappointing industrial growth performance to tight monetary policy, and global factors, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government and the Reserve Bank of India will take steps to revive economic growth.On a more positive note, he said capital goods output for February 2012 expanded 10.6 per cent, on the back of a recovery in domestic investment. And he said the good news was the strong performance of the electricity sector.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee says, inclusive growth is a key strategy to achieve and banks should play a key role in promoting it. He was speaking at thein Mumbai on Saturday.

Mukherjee underlined the need to ensure every segment of the poor, weak and the downtrodden has easy access to reasonable and cost-effective banking facilities.

Stating that the banking industry is not a wealth generating but a wealth transmission and distribution mechanism he said that the Government will remain committed to capitalizing Public Sector banks through sufficient infusion of fiscal capital.