Tag: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

Opposition’s ‘personal attacks’ on PM Modi exposed by SC verdicts: BJP political resolution

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The political resolution proposed at the BJP national executive on Monday accused the Opposition of running a negative campaign over several issues against the government and launching “personal attacks” on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asserted that Supreme Court verdicts exposed it.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju proposed the resolution at the key meeting, a pointer to his rising profile in the party as he spearheads the government’s position on legal and judicial issues, and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Karnataka minister Govind Karjol seconded it, Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here.

While Rijiju is a tribal, Maurya belongs to the Other Backward Class and Karjol is from the SC community, social groups the BJP has wooed with considerable electoral success in the last few years.

Also Read: BJP chairs national executive meeting: PM Modi’s mega roadshow in Delhi today, check key routes to avoid

Sitharaman cited a number of issues over which the Opposition had built a campaign against the government, including Rafale, Pegasus, Central Vista project, demonetisation and EWS quota, and said the Supreme Court verdicts in the government’s favour on them exposed it.

Unfounded and personal allegations were levelled against PM Modi but the crushing legal response exposed the Opposition, she said, citing political resolution.

She said PM Modi is seen as an incorruptible leader who is working for the country’s interest and whose leadership has found respect globally. India’s image under his leadership has also been enhanced, she added.

Also Read: Delhi Assembly Session adjourned, AAP protest over Finland teacher training amid tussle with L-G | Top points

Modi’s assertion that this is not an era of war during his telephonic talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed in the G20 declaration at Bali and his push for United Nations reform has been recognised, she said.

The political resolution lauded the BJP’s historic verdict in the Gujarat assembly polls and a number of by-polls to assert that it will have an impact on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.  The BJP has said that it might have lost the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections but its vote share was just one per cent less than that of the Congress.

In the second session of the meeting, BJP state units of four poll-bound states Meghalaya, Tripura, Nagaland and Karnataka gave their reporting of political activities in these states.

Also Read: EC to discuss remote voting machines with political parties

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RSS affiliates seek 51 cow-centric varsities, revival of old pension scheme in Budget 2023-24

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Fifty-one cow-centric universities, more jobs for the youth, an increase in the minimum support income for farmers as per the inflation rate and measures to curb Chinese imports are some of the demands tabled by various affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for Budget 2023-24.

Sitharaman, who will present the Budget 2023 on February 1 next year, recently concluded pre-Budget consultation meetings with various stakeholders. The meetings were held in virtual mode from November 21 to 28. The finance minister participated in eight sessions and interacted with over 110 guests representing seven stakeholder groups. Apart from economists, the stakeholder groups included representatives from the agriculture and agro-processing sector, financial sector and capital markets, services and trade sectors, social sector, trade unions and labour organisations.

ALSO READ: RBI seen raising rates by smaller 35 bps in Dec, hiking again in early 2023

In a meeting with the finance minister on November 22, the agriculture body Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) sought measures to reduce farmers’ distress and boost agrarian entrepreneurship.

BKS informed the union finance minister that even though farmers were producers of food, they were being taxed under GST for a number of inputs without getting any input tax credit. The agriculture body has asked the government to make provisions such as providing an input tax credit for farmers and the removal of GST for agricultural inputs.

BKS has also asked the government to link the Rs 6,000 per year minimum income support for farmers under the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme with inflation and increase it accordingly.

“It is a highly popular scheme, but it was started in 2018-19. Since then, input costs of agriculture have increased due to inflation; its ceiling should be increased to de-stress small farmers,” The Print quoted BKS general secretary Mohini Mohan Mishra as saying.

ALSO READ: Budget 2023-24 | Experts demand new roadmap for capital gains taxation — What we know so far?

To boost organic farming, the Sangh farmers’ body has proposed setting up 51 universities for building research and knowledge on “cow-based” organic farming. This would also facilitate entrepreneurship in the villages.

On the other hand, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the labour wing of the RSS, demanded that the government bring back the old pension scheme (OPS) for government employees, which was replaced by the National Pension Scheme (NPS) in 2004.

The pre-Budget meeting of the finance minister with stakeholders of labour organisations on November 28 was attended by only three trade unions, including the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, National Front of Indian Trade Unions (NFITU) and Trade Union Co-ordination Centre (TUCC). As many as 10 central trade unions boycotted the meeting as it was clubbed with NGOs and employers’ organisations and each speaker got only three minutes time to present their views.

ALSO READ: Budget 2023-24: FM Nirmala Sitharaman chairs final pre-budget meeting economists

BMS strongly demanded an increase in the minimum pension from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000, Financial Express quoted the trade union as saying. More funds for the unorganised sector and enhanced monthly honorarium for scheme workers such as Anganwadi, ASHA workers, and mid-day meals workers, were some of the other demands of the trade union body.

Another RSS affiliate, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), which promotes the interests of local traders and small-scale industries, demanded that the government raise customs duties on Chinese products to discourage their imports.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Indian rupee is holding out really well against the dollar, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at the Network18 Exclusive Townhall said that the Indian rupee is holding out really well. “The rate of fall of other currencies to the dollar has been sharply higher than the rupee. We are much better than many countries where the currency has fallen pathetically against the dollar,” she said.

The Indian rupee fell to a record closing low of 81.62 against the dollar on Monday.

Sitharaman said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not aiming at fixing the exchange rate. “RBI intervention is more to avoid fluctuation in currency. We need to ensure that the fluctuation is not severe,” she said, adding that the fall in rupee, in today’s global economic slowdown, may or may not help exports. 

Development in the south

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) takes business seriously when it comes to an election, said Sitharaman. She said there will come a time when the party will be able to capture the imagination of the people in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“Development happens faster in some states which have had a history of that kind of access to education, policies driven towards industrialization etc. So that way Tamil Nadu has had the advantage because of having lot of exposure to English education,” she said.

Sitharaman added that due to the topography of the state, there was a clear understanding of different governments over the decades that industrialisation is very important. “So since 1960s there has been a lot of emphasis on getting industries and investing for industries. So inspite of rural lives still intact in some parts of Tamil Nadu, it is majorly an urbanised state. It also has the advantage of having sea ports and people are also very entrepreneurial,” she said, adding that if every state thinks that I am giving so much revenue then I should get so much then it is just not going to work out.

On GST facing criticism 

“I don’t know if criticising GST model is only a political narrative,” Sitharaman said, adding  that prior to the GST Council being formed, there was an empowered group of ministers (GoM) who actually worked into the details of it and came up with a framework.

“West Bengal’s former FM Asim Dasgupta was the chair of the empowered GoM, which worked on GST law. The GoM was always headed by a finance minister from an opposition party,” she said.

It was for the first time after 1947, a federal institution that was constitutionally approved was formed, she said.

Sitharaman also said that ideas to improve GST are always welcome, but dumping it is not the way to go about it. She said institution building is a difficult and time-consuming process, while thrashing it is easy.

She said to the credit of the council, even during the pademic when borrowing at a big level had to be done, “to arrive at that decision it was a tremendous lot of sitting through, but it had all worked out. Institutions need patience.”

On language debate

Talking about the language debate around considering Hindi as India’s national language, Sitharaman said that it is one thing to believe in an ideology and to not want any other language, but another to deny an individual the right to learn what s/he wants.

“In Tamil Nadu scholarships are denied to students who learn Hindi and Sanskrit. Toppers are denied scholarships if one of the languages in their curriculum was Hindi. How is this justifiable,” she asks?

On freebies debate

Talking about the recent debate on freebies, Sitharaman said that welfare is equal to public good. “Hospitals, good government-run schools, public infrastructure is welfare.  You are welcome to give more welfare measures if you have the resources and the budget to do so,” she said, adding that one can give free welfare measures, but must account for it in their budget.

On OMCs

Sitharaman said she would have to talk to oil marketing companies (OMCs) on what their recoveries are like. “We will need to see the losses of OMCs before deciding on cut in prices,” she said.

She also said the government doesn’t differentiate between sectors while extending assistance to different MSME companies.

She also said that whenever she meets regulators, she discusses cyber security measures. “Cyber security is a continuing challenge as you have to continuously update your system,” she said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

FM Nirmala Sitharaman asks plastic firms to avoid mistakes of pharma & auto sector by ensuring local supply chains

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged plastic manufacturers to learn from the pharmaceutical and automobile industry’s experiences in ensuring ready availability of raw materials to support India’s attempts at boosting production of microprocessors and semiconductors.

Emphasizing the need to ensure “backward and forward linkages”, the Finance Minister warned the industry about making the mistake of relying on raw material imports.

“We have come to witness a great deal of discourse and activity of late in fab production and chip production, we are seeing new investments come into this space,” Sitharaman said while addressing a stakeholders’ outreach programme in Tamil Nadu,

“However, we need to ask ourselves the question — are we prepared with the critical raw material to bring in such business? Fab manufacturers are setting up shop, but do we have the raw material to support them? Or will we end up relying on raw material imports?,” she added.

Also Read: Centre under PM Modi has created new opportunities for private sector: FM Sitharaman

Citing the historic example of Indian pharma, Sitharaman called on manufacturers to learn from mistakes committed in letting overseas suppliers enjoy monopoly and thus play the deciding role in fixing raw material prices. Without naming China, the FM emphasized on how Chinese API-manufacturers have begun indirectly deciding cost of pharmaceutical production, in India.

“Take the example of the pharmaceutical industry — whatever drug you need to manufacture needs to have active pharmaceutical ingredients or APIs,” she said, adding, “While our country used to produce the maximum number of APIs, there was another country that came along and began manufacturing cheaper APIs and began enjoying an advantage over us.”

She said that today we depend on APIs from just one country that now has the option of whether it would like to increase prices or not. “So, a country like ours that led the world when it came to manufacturing pharmaceutical products has its cost of production dependent on what we pay for APIs from another country,” she added.

Sitharaman said she was citing the example of the pharmaceutical industry in order to remind the Indian industry that overseas investments alone would not count for much if there is no raw material integration in local supply chains. “We need to check whether our forward and backward integration is in place or whether we will be reduced to importing our raw materials from other countries.”

Also Read: RBI’s rate hike wasn’t surprising, timing was: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

She added that both, the Union and various state governments were going the distance in ensuring there were no glitches in the value and supply chain of local industry, lest it go the way of the automobile industry. “Microprocessors and chips should have been here by now to meet supply chain obligations,” Sitharaman said, adding, “But the country that supplies us with these components still has lockdowns. This means we have no microprocessors even though we have ready inventory and demand, as a result of which business is suffering.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

RBI’s rate hike wasn’t surprising, timing was: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the recent interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was not surprising for her but the timing was, asserting that the rising cost of funds will not impact the government’s planned infrastructure investments.

For the first time since August 2018, RBI had on May 4 delivered a blunt 40 basis points increase in key repo rate to 4.40 percent, and also hiked the cash reserve ratio by 50 basis points to 4.5 percent after an unscheduled meeting of the rate setting panel, citing increased inflation pressures following the Russia-Ukraine war and the resultant spike in crude oil prices.

“Retail inflation printed at 6.9 percent in March and the April reading is forecast to top 7.7 percent. The timing of RBI’s rate hike came as a surprise but not the action itself as people thought it should have been done anyway. It came as a surprise because it’s between the two monetary policy committee (MPCs) meetings. But the US Fed had been saying it all the while,” Sitharaman said in her first reaction to the rate hike while addressing an award function in Mumbai on Saturday evening.

Also Read: GST revenue collection highest ever at Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April 2022

She said that in the last MPC meeting, the RBI gave indications that it’s time for them to also act, and the hike was part of a synchronised action by major central banks across the globe. In a way, it was a synchronised action. Australia did it, and the US did it that night. So, I see a greater understanding among central banks nowadays. But the understanding of how to handle recovery from the pandemic is not fully unique or typical for only India. It’s a global issue.

“And even as we handled that recovery, inflation, which was really festering and festering at some unbelievable highs, let us say in the US and Britain, not so much in our country…Still, the challenge of recovery versus inflation seems to be following a particular template that’s across the globe now,” she said. However, she was quick to assert that the central bank’s decision will not impact the government’s planned huge infrastructure investments running into tens of billions of dollars.

On the economic sanctions against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, she said the blockades were constraining us as traditional buyers from Russia were shifting to sources from the Indian basket of crude, 80-85 percent of which is from the Middle East. This shift was likely to put more pressure on the Indian crude basket price. The sanctions have resulted in people rushing to alternative sources where countries like us are there for decades. Now suddenly it will be crowded with more people who want to buy the same thing. So, supply and price factors will now have its ramification on us, she said and made it clear that India will continue to buy crude from wherever it was available cheaply.

Also Read: Rescue countries facing debt stress in these uncertain times: FM Nirmala Sitharaman to World Bank

“In matters related to our oil consumption and buying it from the source which gives us a concessional rate, we’ve asserted our right in doing that. We’ve been explaining that we’ll certainly purchase it, so it is something that hasn’t been said for the first time. We’ll go ahead with what is good for us. We need cheap fuel. If it is available, why won’t we want to buy it?,” she said.

Sitharaman said even before the war, there was an increase in prices of fertilisers. The government had to seek extra spending approval during the supplementary demands because of the way crude oil was playing up and the rise in commodity prices due to supply disruptions.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

GST revenue collection highest ever at Rs 1.68 lakh crore in April 2022

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The GST revenue collection for April 2022 is the highest ever at Rs 1.68 lakh crore, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted on Sunday.

GST Revenue collection for April 2022 highest ever at Rs 1.68 lakh crore. https://t.co/eIKRnDV0U7

— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) May 1, 2022

The Finance Ministry issued a statement on Sunday saying that the gross GST revenue collected in April 2022 was Rs 1,67,540 crore. Of which, CGST is Rs 33,159 crore, SGST is Rs 41,793 crore, IGST is Rs 81,939 crore (including Rs 36,705 crore collected on import of goods) and cess is Rs 10,649 crore (including Rs 857 crore collected on import of goods).

The gross GST collection in April 2022 is Rs 25,000 crore more than the previous highest collection of Rs. 1,42,095 crore, which was just last month.

“The government has settled Rs 33,423 crore to CGST and Rs 26962 crore to SGST from IGST,” the statement said. The total revenue of the Centre and states in April 2022, after regular settlement is Rs 66,582 crore for CGST and Rs 68,755 crore for the SGST, the statement added.

The revenues for the month of April 2022 are 20 percent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year. “During the month, revenues from import of goods was 30 percent higher and the revenues from domestic transaction (including import of services) are 17 percent higher than the revenues from these sources during the same month last year,” the statement said.

This is for the first time that the gross GST collection has crossed the Rs 1.5 lakh crore mark. As many as 7.7 crore e-way bills were generated in March 2022, which was 13 percent higher than the 6.8 crore e-way bills generated in February 2022, which reflected the recovery of business activity at a faster pace, the statement said.

Also Read: GST detects Rs 10 crore cash, turnover of Rs 1,764 crore in toilet-sized office

The highest ever tax collection in a single day was recorded on April 20, 2022 and the highest collection during an hour, was recorded from 4pm to 5pm on the same day. “On April 20, 2022, Rs 57,847 crore was paid through 9.58 lakh transactions and during 4pm to 5pm,  almost Rs 8,000 crore was paid through 88,000 transactions,” the statement said.

The highest single day payment last year (on the same date) was Rs 48,000 crore through 7.22 lakh transactions and highest one hour collection (2pm to 3pm on the same date last year) was Rs 6,400 crore through 65,000 transactions.

As many as 1.06 crore GST returns in GSTR-3B were filed during April 2022. Of them, 97 lakh pertained to March 2022, as compared to the total 92 lakh returns filed during April 2021, the statement said. “Similarly, during April 2022, 1.05 crore statements of invoices issued in GSTR-1 were filed. Till end of the month, the filing percentage for GSTR-3B in April 2022 was 84.7 percent as compared to 78.3 percent in April 2021 and the filing percentage for GSTR-1 in April 2022 was 83.11 percent as compared to 73.9 percent in April 2021,” the statement added.

The statement said that this showed clear improvement in the compliance behaviour.

Among the states, Maharashtra showed a 25 percent growth in GST collections in April 2022 as compared to April 2021, while Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana showed a 16 percent increase each, Karnataka showed a 19 percent rise. West Bengal showed an 8 percent increase in the same period, while Odisha showed a 28 percent increase,  Gujarat and Goa showed a 17 percent rise each, and Rajasthan showed a 19 percent increase in GST collections.

Also Read: Rescue countries facing debt stress in these uncertain times: FM Nirmala Sitharaman to World Bank

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Government extends scope and validity of ECLGS till March 31, 2023

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The scope and validity of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) has been extended till March 31, 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

The government has extended relief for Hospitality, Civil Aviation and related enterprises under the ECLGS.

The government has also increased additional credit support from existing 40 percent of fund-based credit outstanding to 50 percent of fund and non-fund based credit outstanding under ECLGS 3.0, the Finance Minister said.

Eligible borrowers in the civil aviation sector are now permitted to avail of non-fund based emergency credit facilities, Sitharaman added.

While presenting her fourth budget on February 1, 2022, for the financial year 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said guarantee cover for ECLGS would will be expanded by Rs 50,000 crore to a total of Rs 5 lakh crore.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow