Search Result for : Arun Jaitley

The Dollar Business Bureau The Government has granted infrastructure status to the logistics sector, which covers warehousing and cold chain facilities, a step that would to attract more investment at remunerative rates for these segments.  “The Logistics Sector has been granted Infrastructure status. It will enable the Logistics Sector to avail infrastructure lending at easier terms with enhanced limits, access to larger amounts of funds as External Commercial Borrowings (ECB), access to longer tenor funds from insurance companies and pension funds and be eligible to borrow from India Infrastructure Financing Company Limited (IIFCL),” Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday.   Due to the higher cost of logistics in India as compared to developed nations, the need has been felt for the ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The GST Council, in its 23rd meeting on Friday, has decided to cut rates from 28% to 18% for 177 items - from detergents to chewing gums. “The all-powerful GST council pruned the list of items attracting the top 28% tax rate to just 50 from 227 previously, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters in Guwahati. The council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, cut the list of items to 50 as against 62 items as recommended by the fitment committee. “There were 227 items in the 28% slab. The fitment committee had recommended that it should be pruned to 62 items. But the GST Council has further pruned 12 more items,” Modi said. He further said that ...

The Dollar Business Bureau India ranked 100th in 'ease of doing business', according to the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2018, jumping 30 places from its position last year. This is the first time that India has entered into top 100 countries. The Doing Business Report is an assessment by World Bank of 190 nations on 10 indicators which covers the lifecycle of a business. India’s rank has been improved in 6 of the 10 indicators and it has moved nearer to the international best practices.  “It is one of the top 10 improvers in this year's assessment, having implemented reforms in 8 out of 10 'doing business' indicators,” the World Bank said. India, which was ranked 130th last year, is the only ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The slew of measures such as reduction of GST rate on man-made fibres, immediate refund of GST and introduction of e-wallet facility for exporters, taken by the GST Council last week, have been welcomed by the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC). “AEPC welcomes the slew of measures taken by the GST Council under the Chairmanship of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in its 22nd meeting,” the Exporters’ body said in a statement. AEPC views that these measures will provide immediate relief to the apparel exporters which have been going through a stressful phase due to various factors, global as well as domestic, it added. The measures include reduction in the GST rate from 18% to 12% of man-made items like synthetic filament yarn ...

The Dollar Business Bureau Bangladesh on Wednesday signed an agreement for the third line of credit (LoC) with India for around $4.5 billion for its social and infrastructure sector development. The pact was inked by David Rasquinha, Managing Director, Export-Import Bank of India (Exim) on behalf of India while Kazi Shofiqul Azam, Economic Relations Division Secretary signed for Bangladesh, in the presence of Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister of India and his Bangladeshi counterpart A M Abdul Muhith in Dhaka. The new LoC will be used by Bangladesh for funding 17 key projects in the country in several sectors including roads, ports, shipping railroads and electricity. Like earlier LoC pacts, the new loan is at an interest rate of ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The government has collected revenue worth Rs.92,283 crore in July from the India’s much hyped regime of Goods and Services Tax (GST), implemented from July 1. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday that around Rs.92,283 crore were collected from GST in July from just 64.42% of the overall taxpayer base. So far, the collections from taxes are in excess of internal estimate done by the Finance Ministry of Rs.91,000 crore. The collections for the month of July, when a unified GST regime was rolled out across the country, which subsumes more than a dozen central and state levies such as excise duty, VAT, service tax and, are expected to further increase when all the taxpayers file their returns. “If we exclude ...

Aamir H Kaki The textile industry has welcomed the Government’s move to cut the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on job work or the third-party services, but said some more leniency in cost is needed. In its meeting last week, the GST Council, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley consisting of representatives from all the states, had taken the decision to bring down the tax on all the job works such as weaving, knitting, cutting, and embroidery in the textile sector at from 18% to 5%.      The 5% rate will be applied on job work in apparel, carpets and shawls.  “We welcome this move of the government but it would be better if it is zero percent,” P M Shah, President, Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) told The Dollar Business. “The thing is that the ...

The Dollar Business Bureau The Goods and Services (GST) Council, in its scheduled meeting in August, is likely to take up the issues related to taxation raised by several sectoral bodies together with a review of the new GST regime, said a top official on Friday.  The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) department is keeping a track of the revenue trends after the implementation of GST from July 1, however, the actual situation will come to light after the returns filed in September, said  Vanaja Sarna, Chairperson, CBEC. The GST Council, headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and consists of representative from the states, will be meeting on August 5 for reviewing the implementation of the GST regime.  “Different issues will be ...