An individual is still subject to a higher rate of tax than most corporates, and doesn't enjoy as many tax deductions.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Ratneshwar Prasad tells Money Today why honest taxpayers should not fear the taxman and what is being done to improve services and compliance.

Over the next 10-12 years the MF industry in India will mushroom to an assets under management level of $1 trillion. This will propel India to the global top five rankings.

Depending on speed of reforms, life will get worse or better, depending on one’s perspective.

The industry has hiked prices to pass on a dual-rate excise hike. Earnings will dip 15% without the hike.

In the age of seamless markets it would be puerile to lay all the blame on the finance minister’s door. But his budget could have provided fresh triggers for the markets to rally around.

Asuccession of finance ministers has industriously chipped away, for the last 20 years, on achieving a remarkable transformation of India’s tax system.

There is still scope for growth in stock prices, but don’t expect your portfolio to go ballistic in 2007.

The foreign institutions continue to remain bullish but the I ndi an funds are still bearish—or booking profits. A nnual results of companies will dictate market sentiments in the next few weeks.

Mumbai is the country's commercial capital, but for the city to become an international fulcrum for finance will take a lot of doing.

The 3G auctions have swelled the government coffers by almost Rs 70,000 crore. BT asks a few economists to give their wishlists on how best the government can use this windfall without frittering it away on wasteful expenditure.

India's largest urban infrastructure improvement programme has been a patchy success story because many states are still dragging their feet on the reforms tagged to the scheme.

Sports: The Next Big Thing (BT cover, April 18) raises prospects of big investment in sports and creation of sports infrastructure in the country.

In recent years, the govt had to impoverish itself to make the economy prosper. The 13th Finance Commission suggests ways to keep both the government and the people prosperous-forever.

The Finance Minister had risked it all on his bet on growth and seems to have come up a winner. Now comes the task of restoring normality in finances and speeding up reforms.

Like in the past, on Budget day, we turn on the television to watch the dull, dreary but still-considered-important Budget speech of the Finance Minister.

After several deaths and rebirths, disinvestment is back as a big-ticket reform. And the timing is good—it's the only reform that can stimulate demand without straining the fiscal deficit.

The UK-India Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) was set up in pursuance of the UK-India Joint Declaration made at London by the Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and India on September 20, 2004.

Once full convertibility is in place and the 2011 Tax Code ends the distinction between domestic and global products, there is likely to be greater demand for global investment products.

Stimulus measures that are in the nature of reforms should continue, other measures may be gradually withdrawn as domestic demand grows, industry recovers, tax collection becomes buoyant and exports growth recovers.