Shruti Srivastava

A senior official told The Indian Express that the Department of Heavy Industry will “bear the entire cost over and above the price of petrol or diesel vehicles under the FAME scheme”.

Currently, goods attract an effective tax rate of 24-25 per cent (including both the central and state levies), while services attract a levy of 14.5 per cent.

Trade facilitation agreement, which is aimed at streamlining customs rules and procedures across the member nations has been pushed by developed nations.

So far, 26 states have appointed export commissioners while around 15 states are working on a trade policy.

The USFDA has notified over 20 issues of violations of standard manufacturing norms.

The meeting on the Broad-based Investment and Trade Agreement will be held on January 17-18

Seventh Pay Commission: While salary revisions are due in these five states, the states which follow a different wage revision cycle, such as Andhra Pradesh, will not be impacted by the report.

On Wednesday, in the Rajya Sabha, Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched a defence of India’s stand at the WTO, saying the country did not come back “empty-handed” from the Nairobi talks.

As the economy moves into the fourth quarter and the fiscal year 2015-16 nears its end, fresh factors— both global as well as domestic— have emerged during the period.

The Indian Express spoke to several industry players who said that there is no systematic push from the Centre in terms of targeted reduction of diesel/petrol vehicles.

Department of Heavy Industry is in talks with Delhi government to launch electric and hybrid vehicles.

Firms over a certain threshold group turnover may be required to give detailed info of financials.

Touted as the country’s most ambitious tax legislation since Independence, the Goods and Services Tax’s journey towards becoming a law has been marked with inordinate delays after it was first proposed in 2007-08 by the then UPA-I govt at the Centre.

The World Customs Organization has urged India to form alliances with other nations to curb the illegal trade of other precious wood.

India is considering fixing a threshold for importing meat, dairy products and wines and spirits.

Aim of a new policy is to improve capital access, encourage innovation and urge states to act as incubators for ‘innovative start-ups’.

In August, PM Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech had given a call for “Start-up India, Stand up India” to encourage innovation and increase employment for the youth.

Option open: Doing away with extra 1% levy on manufacturing states for 2 years.

Top 50 companies spent over Rs 4,600 cr in 2014-15 on CSR activities, most of them focussed on areas of their business operation.

As many as 2,26,339 patent applications were pending as on July 31, 2015, due to shortage of professionals, according to the government data.

Saudi Arabia tops the list of countries with maximum convictions in terror financing cases, followed by the US, Turkey, Algeria & France.

Economists say that while states’ apprehensions may be exaggerated, there is a merit in their argument as the contours of the latest cess — the Swachh Bharat levy — are not clear.

Move continuation of crackdown the department had started early this year.

With the Bihar verdict not going in the BJP-led NDA’s favour, the road for the much delayed legislation only gets tougher from here.