-The Hindu The Central Information Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs.25,000 on the Public Information Officer of the Delhi Government's Urban Development Department for violating provisions of the Right to Information Act by delaying furnishing of information to the appellant on regularisation of unauthorised colonies. The appellant, Bhupender Singh Rawat, who is convener of non-government organisation Jan Sangharsh Vahini, had sought details on 13 points from the Urban Development Department. When...

Token relief to individual taxpayers will cost the exchequer Rs. 4,500 crore In a “pragmatic and domestic growth-oriented” budgetary exercise aimed at shoring up investor confidence and investment, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday sought to tap indirect taxes, especially service tax, to rake in an additional Rs. 45,940 crore into his kitty. Presenting the budget for 2012-13 in Parliament, Mr. Mukherjee provided a token relief to individual taxpayers that will cost...

Budget 2012 has further validated the existence of the Unique Identification Authority of India, whose identity was under question barely six months ago, by giving it more money and responsibilities to shape the government's technological interventions. The government has allocated the UIDAI Rs 1,758 crore from the Budget in 2012-13, a year-on-year increase of 47%, primarily to increase enrolments of Indians for unique IDs to 600 million, from 200 million.  A...

-PTI Budget allocation for Central Government hospitals in the capital has been increased for the coming fiscal, with AIIMS getting Rs 1,124 crore which is nearly 6% more as compared to the last year's Rs 1,062.35 crore. This is followed by the Safdarjung Hospital which will receive Rs 467.55 crore this year, which is 27% more in comparison to the allocation of Rs 366.88 crore last year. The next in the row of...

-PTI The government has pegged its outgo on food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies in the 2012-13 fiscal at over Rs1.79 lakh crore, nearly 14% lower than the revised estimates for the current fiscal. According to the Budget proposals, the government's subsidy bill on food, petroleum and fertilisers is estimated at Rs1,79,554 crore for the 2012-13 fiscal as against Rs2,08,503 crore in the revised estimates for this fiscal. Interestingly, the revised estimate for this...