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1. Excise duty hiked on petrol, diesel: Government today hiked excise duty on petrol by Rs 0.37 per litre and by Rs 2 a litre on diesel, the second increase in duties in just over two weeks, to mop up a little less than Rs 4,400 crore. However, there will be no increase in retail selling price of petrol and diesel as state-owned oil firms had not passed on the full benefit of a reduction in international oil prices to consumers on January 1. Basic excise duty on unbranded or normal petrol has been increased from Rs 7.36 per litre to Rs 7.73 and the same on unbranded diesel from Rs 5.83 to Rs 7.83 per litre, a notification of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said. The increase in excise duty will fetch the government over Rs 4,300 crore on diesel and about Rs 80 crore on petrol. (Image Source: Reuters)
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5. Who will be the big gainers when India builds Smart Cities? It all depends on how cities go ahead in implementing their plans. The hope is that planned development in one area will encourage other areas in the city to seek similar plans. The success of one city will prod other cities to replicate such plans. These are early days, but since much of the development will be driven by ICT, there is immense scope for IT companies.
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3. Arun Jaitley asks tax officers to emulate Mahatma Gandhi, maintain ethics: Amid the ongoing controversy involving Delhi Government bureaucrats, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the officers should emulate the Gandhian principle and maintain position of ethics and morality. Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, he said: "You will always face a lot of pulls and pressure in your career, and you will always be in doubt what direction to follow. There will be pressures from seniors, from peers, from politics, from governments, from powerful individuals, and business interest, there will be temptations." (Image Source: PTI)
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4. Venkaiah Naidu attacks P Chidambaram: Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today rejected Congress leader P Chidambaram's remarks blaming Government for the logjam on GST Bill and alleged that Congress was "dodgy" on this issue as per its "script". "I was taken aback by the comments of Chidambaram yesterday when he said that the economy is stuck in a groove and blamed the government for stand off on GST. "As Parliamentary Affairs Minister, I would like to strongly rebut Chidambaram's allegation blaming the government for standoff on GST," Naidu said. (Image Source: PTI)
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5. Maharashtra govt to waive road tax, registration for electric vehicles: To reduce pollution and work towards cleaner environment, the Maharashtra government would waive value added tax, road tax and registration charges for electric vehicles, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said today. "I am committing to you publicly that Mahashtra will waive VAT, Road Tax and registration for all electric vehicles in the state," Goyal told reporters after inaugurating the bio-CNG plant at Mahindra World City near here. Stating that the government would extend its support towards "cost effective solutions" that would make India cleaner and greener, Goyal said he had taken up the issue of waiving registration charges of electric vehicles with the union government and was hopeful of implementing it. (Image Source: PTI)
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6. Narendra Modi govt profiteering at the cost of common people: Congress | Attacking Modi government over its decision to increase excise duty on Petrol and Diesel, Congress today accused it of "blatantly profiteering at the cost of common people" saying this amounts to further "bleeding" the farmer already crushed by an agrarian crisis. "In a move that amounts to blatantly profiteering at the cost of common people, for whose benefit Governments are elected – excise on Diesel and Petrol were increased for the seventh time today by Rs 2.00 and Rs 0.37 respectively. "Instead of passing on the benefits of record low international crude oil prices to the consumers, Government is consistently making a windfall gain for itself. The hike in excise affected today is expected to earn the Government, an additional Rs 4,300 crore, which will be over and above the gain of about Rs 4,000 crore that the last hike in excise duty accrued," Congress said. (Image Source: PTI)
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7. Bank of Baroda debuts on social media, launches Twitter handle: The state-owned Bank of Baroda has entered the social media space by launching its Facebook page and Twitter handle as part of its efforts to restore its image that has been hit by the alleged Rs 6,100-crore remittance scam. An unaccounted Rs 6,172 crore was purported to have been remitted from a Delhi branch of Bank of Baroda to Hong Kong camouflaged as payments for non-existent imports such as cashew, pulses and rice. The alleged scam came to light in October 2015. BoB will be available on Facebook and Twitter and its presence will extend to other social marketing mediums in due course, BoB said in a statement.
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8. Tata Steel's workers in Scotland get new package: A number of key employees at Indian steel giant Tata Steel's two Scottish plants on the verge of closure will be retained on a 60 per cent salary as part of a new 195,000-pounds government support package, the Scottish government announced today. The Britain's biggest steelmaker had announced last year that Dalzell and Clydebridge plants in Lanarkshire region would be mothballed, resulting in 270 job losses, while blaming the closure on a flood of cheap imports from China, a strong pound and high electricity costs. Scotland's business minister Fergus Ewing announced the package, saying the government's move was a positive development in the quest to save some of those jobs and secure a future for Scottish steel. (Image Source: PTI)
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9. Retrospective tax law hurt India, scared away investors: Arun Jaitley: Retrospective tax law has hurt the country as it scared away the investors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said and stressed on the need for maintaining the standards of fairness in taxation. Addressing the officer trainees of the Indian Revenue Service, Jaitley said taxes which are realisable have to be collected, but the taxes that are not realisable, should not be collected. "If you ask me 4-5 years later, in Income Tax Act… did the provisions of the retrospective taxation help India or did they hurt India? My answer is very clear, they hurt India because at the end of the day we have not been able to collect those taxes and we scared investors away," he said. He was referring to the retrospective tax law brought in by the previous UPA government. (Image Source: PTI)
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10. DBT in kerosene to help better targeting of subsidy: FinMin: Direct transfer of kerosene subsidy to the bank accounts of users will help in better targeting of the benefits to those who actually deserve it, Finance Ministry said today. The government last night said it will roll out Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) for kerosene from April 1 where the users will buy the cooking fuel at market rate but will get financial support directly in their bank accounts. "Congratulations to Petroleum Ministry for announcing DBT in kerosene. Subsidy should be targeted and reach those who actually deserve," Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said in a tweet. DBT in kerosene will help curtail subsidy outgo for the cooking fuel which in 2014-15 was about Rs 24,799 crore. (Image Source: Reuters)
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