Union Budget 2014 News

Mutual Fund industry on Friday termed as 'partial relief' the government's decision to exempt debt mutual funds sold between April 1 and July 10 this year from an increased tax rate.

Mr Jaitley, who presented his maiden Budget on July 10, is being criticised, especially by rating agencies, for not repealing the retrospective tax amendment and not providing enough sops for the industry.

Finance Ministry on Saturday said it is examining various issues pertaining to mergers of public sector banks and that there will be some forward movement in the current year itself.

The Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI) praised India's decision to raise the cap on foreign direct investments (FDI) to help the Indian economy.

Bankers on Thursday hailed Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's maiden budget, saying it would create an enabling environment for future growth.

Currently foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed up to 26 percent in the private insurance companies.

The budget focused on how the growth of the country will be, by covering needs of all the sectors, R R Balasundaram, President, Local Chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Industry players said it sets the tone for attaining higher growth trajectory, job creation and attracting investments for an economy grappling with multiple challenges.

Arun Jaitley said two key initiatives -- free drug service and free diagnosis service -- would be taken up on priority as part of move towards 'Health for All'.

The industry experts said the focus on the solar energy sector will give a deserving boost to solar companies to increase generation capacity .

Thuesday's fall of 44 paise, or 0.74 percent, is the worst drop of since the 52 paise plunge on June 13, 2014.

In post-budget comments, the minister said there will be no fresh liability but also ruled out refunding taxes collected over the last 30 or 40 years.

The minister said the sovereign right of the government to undertake retrospective legislation is unquestionable.

BSE MD & CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan said that government's announcement to bring down fiscal deficit to 3.6 per cent in 2015-16 and implementation of GST within a time frame was the biggest positive from the budget.

He said the Budget is in line with making India skilled and digital, guided by the usage of the latest technology.

With regard to arm's length price for computing tax liability under the transfer pricing rules, he said a new "range concept" would be introduced in line with the international practices.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday proposed raising the FDI cap from 26 percent to 49 percent.

KPMG India personal taxation partner Vikas Vasal said, "Tax relief provided to individuals is welcome especially when the government faced tough macroeconomic situation."

All these measures will result in a revenue loss of Rs 22,300 crore to the government this fiscal, the Minister said, while indirect tax increases will fetch only under Rs 8,000 crore.

Apart from that the target to form 5 lakh more joint liability groups of farmers will also be very helpful given the fact that the number of landless farmers is increasing.