The finance ministry said that so far, 81 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the states & UTs with Legislative Assembly

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Hardeep Singh Puri said the equalisation levy collection stood at Rs 338.6 crore in 2016-17, Rs 589.4 crore in 2017-18, and Rs 938.9 crore in 2018-19

Union Budget 2021-22 news: The government has imposed a steep agriculture infrastructure and development cess (AIDC) of Rs 2.5 per litre on petrol and Rs 4 per litre on diesel but has cushioned it with a commensurate reduction in excise duty on the two fuels to not burden consumers

Budget 2021: The fiscal deficit of 9.5 per cent in 2020-21 and 6.8 per cent of GDP in 2021-22 crosses the level of global financial crisis. In fact, the numbers are much above the market expectations

Union budget 2021: The shortfall is largely on account of a shortfall of Rs 2.34 lakh crore in corporate taxes

Union Budget 2021 Highlights: Congress leader P. Chidambaram said that the government had only marginally raised health funding, which when adjusted to inflation becomes nil

When is Union Budget 2021: Check budget speech timings, where to watch live streaming, live telecast channels, expectations from finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, income tax expectations, healthcare, railways, jobs, education, aviation sector expectations and other important details on 2021 Union Budget

Medium and small liquor manufactures have said that the proposed stringent excise policy means that only large MNC liquor players would be able to register and sell in Delhi market

Given the skewed finances of the central government owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no elbow room at all to provide any relief to the common taxpayer

The Union Budget 2021 should reflect concrete and enthused government efforts to boost both consumption and demand for an overall push to the economy

With India about to roll out its vaccination programme, the accruals of the economic benefits would be significant, especially to sectors hit hard during the pandemic, said ASSOCHAM Secretary General Deepak Sood

Govt aims to vaccinate 30 crore priority individuals by August 2021 and 50 crore private individuals by 2022-end. SBI think tank says India will require around Rs 56,000-72,000 crore to administer vaccines to 80 crore people

Even if the government manages to collect the same tax amount in the last four months of FY21 as it did last fiscal, the total tax collection would be around Rs 18.6 lakh crore, almost 6 lakh crore lower than the budgeted estimate

The fiscal deficit currently stands at Rs 10,75,507 crore according to the latest data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA)

As per the finance ministry, more than 170 invitees representing 9 stakeholder groups participated in 15 Pre-Budget consultation meetings scheduled between December 14 to 23

Top-down reforms since the demonetisation of 2016 have already derailed the economy and brought misery to millions, yet the great zeal to do more of the same amidst protests from several segments of population demonstrate that the intent is far from public welfare

Based on cumulative inflows between April 2000 and September 2020, it is the 10th largest contributor with a 2 per cent share in total FDI flows

A sharp increase in government expenditure in proportion to revenue collection, though, is not because govt has increased spending but because of poor revenue and disinvestment collections

While government claims on tax compliance and GST collections paint a healthier picture of the economy, tax-to-GDP has fallen for two consecutive years and tax collections across the board in the first half of FY21 are nowhere close to FY20, indicating that trouble is far from over

Employers' contribution of 14 per cent in pension under the National Pension System (NPS) scheme for the central government employees was made tax free from April 1, 2019