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[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said retail inflation is now " stable " and temporary increases in inflation on a few occasions are caused by demand-supply mismatches arising out of global shocks and adverse weather conditions. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha , Sitharaman said India's retail inflation has declined from an average of 7.1% in April-October 2022 to 5.4% in the corresponding period of 2023. "The retail inflation is now stable and within the notified tolerance band of 2% to 6%. A steady decline in core inflation, estimated after removing volatile food and fuel items from retail inflation, has been critical in weakening the inflationary pressure in the Indian economy," she said. The core inflation rate has declined from 5.1% in April 2023 to 4.3% in October 2023. The minister said retail inflation in India has been mostly within acceptable limits after the notification of the inflation tolerance band in 2016....

[ad_1] BHUBANESWAR: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made it clear on Friday that the Centre will not consider demands for “special category status” for any state, dealing a major blow to states like Odisha and Bihar who have been pushing for it for some years now. Asked whether the Centre will consider Odisha’s push for special category status, the FM, who was interacting with the media here on the Union Budget, said, “(The 14th) Finance commission has clearly said no special status can be given.” Taking examples of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which were given special category status in the initial years after bifurcation, she said, “But the finance commission’s clear opinion is no more special status category.” Odisha and Bihar have been pressing for special category status to avail 90% funds in centrally sponsored schemes, instead of the present arrangement of 60%, besides other benefits. Odisha has been seeking change in criteria to accommodate it keeping in mind ...

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: More than four crore income tax returns (ITRs) for the 2022-23 financial year have been filed so far and about 7 per cent of these are new or first-time filers, CBDT chairperson Nitin Gupta said on Monday. He said that more than half of these ITRs have been processed leading to 80 lakh refunds till now. The "shortage of manpower at every level was impeding our efforts to give even better results", Gupta said and urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for a "quick approval" of the department's cadre restructuring proposal. The chairperson was speaking at an event held here to mark the 164th Income Tax Day where Sitharaman was the chief guest. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is the administrative authority for the Income Tax Department . Gupta said direct tax collection, which includes personal income tax and corporate tax among others, has been making "remarkable" strides as the department collected more than...

[ad_1] NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said GST implementation has brought relief to the common citizens and helped raise revenues of the Centre and the states as her ministry reported that gross GST revenues in June rose 12% to Rs 1.6 lakh crore. Data released by the finance ministry showed that gross GST revenues crossed the Rs 1.6 lakh crore mark for the fourth time since the implementation of the tax reform on July 1, 2017. Collections have been Rs 1.4 lakh crore for 16 months in a row and Rs 1.5 lakh crore for the seventh time since the rollout. The average monthly gross GST collection for the first quarter of financial year 2021-22, FY 22-23 and FY 23-24 are Rs 1.1 lakh crore, Rs 1.5 lakh crore and Rs. 1.7 lakh crore, respectively, according to a finance ministry statement. At the GST Day function, Sitharaman said, "Now the collections have improved. The new normal is being talked about. If only the fake invoices and the fraudulent claims,...