ficci

Reeling under the impact of global slowdown and a high interest rate regime, India Inc on Monday demanded that tax rates be retained at existing levels even as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed concerns about challenges facing the economy.In their customary pre-Budget meeting with Mukherjee, industry leaders also demanded that healthcare services be kept outside service tax ambit, and privatise coal mines. Full Article

The importance of an inclusive financial system is widely recognized in the policy circles not only in India but has become a policy priority in many countries. Several countries across the globe now look at financial inclusion as the means of a more comprehensive growth, wherein each citizen of the country is able to use their earning as a financial resource that they can put to work to improve their future financial status, adding to the nation’s progress. Full Article

Expressing hope that the Companies Bill, 2009, will be passed by Parliament in 2011, the Corporate Affairs Minister, Veerappa Moily, today said his ministry was ready with the Cabinet note for the legislation. Companies Bill will be passed, if not in this (monsoon) session, (then) definitely in the winter session, Moily told reporters on the sidelines of a FICCI meet here. Full Article

Asked by the government for suggestions on a new set of rules for ownership and governance of the stock exchanges, the industry has favoured listing of the bourses.However, there is no unanimity among the industry bodies and the exchanges themselves on how to segregate the regulatory and commercial roles of stock exchanges. Full Article

Rajiv Kumar, a well-known economist, has been appointed as the FICCI secretary general, a post vacated by Amit Mitra who has joined the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal as finance minister. Full Article

Amit Mitra, who is tipped to become the next Finance Minister of West Bengal in the Trinamool Congress-led government, has resigned as Ficci Secretary General. Mitra, 63, emerged as a 'giant killer' by defeating CPI(M) veteran and state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta by a big margin from the Khardah Assembly constituency. Full Article

Ministry of Finance has initiated a public debate on the issue of a negative list for taxation of services as announced by the Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget 2011. The text of the speech is as below-Many experts have argued that it will be desirable to tax services based on a small negative list, so that many untapped sectors are brought into the tax net. Such an approach will be very conducive for a nationwide GST. I propose to initiate an informe.. Full Article

It is my pleasure to speak at FICCI’s National Executive Committee Meeting this year. As many observers have been highlighting, after a relatively long phase of benign, growth-friendly macroeconomic conditions, things have begun to look somewhat hostile on the macroeconomic front. The most significant manifestation of this is the acceleration of inflation, a trend that was visible even before the impact of the financial crisis was felt in late 2008, but which very quic.. Full Article