(TH) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will on Monday inaugurate the Income Tax Department’s National E-assessment Centre (NeAC), which will reduce face-to-face interaction between taxpayers and tax officials. The setting up of NeAC is a step for better taxpayer service, reduction of taxpayer grievances in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Digital India’ and promotion of ease of doing business, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. “The new initiative shall impart greater efficiency, transparency and accountability in the assessment process. There would be no physical interface between the tax payers and the tax officers,” it said. It added that under…
Author: Aruna Sharma
(ET) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will likely visit Saudi Arabia soon during which he is expected to hold bilateral talks with top Saudi leadership, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. During the visit, the Prime Minister is also expected to attend an investment summit hosted by the Gulf nation in capital Riyadh. No official announcement or confirmation of PM Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia has been made yet. According to sources familiar with the development, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia prepared the ground for the Prime Minister’s visit expected later this month. Doval discussed various aspects of bilateral issues and also explained the…
(ET) The fate of around 800 mw out of 1,200 mw of wind power auctioned by NTPC last year remains uncertain because the state-owned firm has not been able to get regulatory approvals. Hero Future Energies, Renew Power, Continuum Wind, Sprng Energy, EDF and Mytrah Energy had emerged as the biggest winners of the auction conducted in August 2018, with tariffs ranging between Rs 2.77 and Rs 2.83 per unit. The state regulator’s approval for adoption of tariff is required within two months after signing the power purchase agreement (PPA) or the power sale agreement (PSA), whichever is first. But with the power regulators delaying their…
(ET) The finance ministry will kick-start the exercise to prepare annual Budget for 2020-21 from October 14 which, among other thing, will have to address critical issues pertaining to slowdown in growth and subdued revenue collection. It will be the second Budget of both the Modi 2.0 government and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. “The pre-Budget/RE (Revised Estimate) meetings will begin on the October 14, 2019. All financial advisers should ensure that the necessary details related to these meetings contained in the RE module of the UBIS (Union Budget Information System),” according to a Budget Circular (2020-21) of the budget division of…
(ET) India has decided to enhance its artillery firepower along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, with the US-made M777 Ultra-Light Howitzers likely to be deployed along the LAC by the year-end. The development comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected India visit next week. After India’s decision to hold its biggest mountain combat exercise — Him Vijay — in Arunachal Pradesh, it’s learnt that China expressed concerns over the war games. Talking of M777s, an official said: “The howitzers will be game changers. They will be deployed by the year-end.” The deployment…
(LiveMint) The post-budget measures announced by the government and the ongoing festive season have renewed the hopes of alloy major JSW Steel of better days ahead, though it still remains cautious on investing in new mines. Since the past few quarters, the steel sector has been hit badly due to the slowdown in real estate, auto and infrastructure sectors. The long and extended monsoon season also played a large role in dampening demand. “Demand slump is quite evident from the numbers given by the joint plant committee for the first half of the fiscal and it has been going down month…
(LiveMint) Ahead of a proposed move to fully privatise state-owned fuel retailer Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), the government had quietly repealed the legislation that had nationalised the company, doing away with the need to seek Parliament nod before selling it off to private and foreign firms. The Repealing and Amending Act of 2016 had annulled “187 obsolete and redundant laws lying unnecessarily on the Statue-Book” including the Act of 1976 that had nationalised erstwhile Burmah Shell. “The Act has been repealed and there is no need for a Parliament approval for strategic sale of BPCL,” a senior official said. Keen to…
(LiveMint) Adani Group’s renewable energy arm – Adani Green Energy Ltd – on Friday said that it has raised $362.5 million through a dollar bond issuance. The dollar bonds, which have a maturity of 20 years, bear an interest rate of 4.625%, the company said in an exchange filing. The proceeds raised through the bond issuance will be used explicitly for three subsidiaries of Adani Green – Wardha Solar (Maharashtra) Pvt Ltd, Kodangal Solar Park Pvt Ltd and Adani Renewable Energy (RJ) Ltd. “The Issuers intend to use all of the proceeds to repay their respective foreign currency loans, rupee borrowing and the…
(BS) The Odisha government has invited financial and technical bids to grant mining leases (ML) for 10 iron ore and manganese blocks. The central government had recently approved the revision in mining lease area limits for iron ore and associated minerals in Odisha to 58 square kilometres (sq km), up from 10 sq km prescribed in Section 6 (1) (b) of the Mines and Minerals- Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act. The state had kept the auctions of iron and manganese ore in abeyance for want for clearance from the Centre. Seven of the mineral blocks on offer are pure iron ore deposits. The rest three have co-existence of iron…
(FE) NTPC has recently commissioned the first unit (660MW) of its Khargone TPP (2x600MW). This plant is India’s first ultra-super-critical project with a station heat rate (SHR) of 2,070kcal/kWh. Notably, it is ~3% more efficient than the super critical ones given the higher steam parameters. Unit-1 is likely to commercialise soon, while unit-2 commissioning is scheduled for Jan’20. NTPC organised an analyst visit to this plant. Below are our key takeaways from it. NTPC has completed trial-run operations at full load for unit-1 on 29th Sep’19 and will likely commercialise the unit this month. For unit-2, light up will likely…