-Live Mint Govt reiterates it will crack down hard on tax evaders, defends steps introduced in Finance Bill to check evasion The government on Tuesday reiterated its intention to crack down hard on tax evaders and defended some of the stringent provisions introduced in the Finance Bill last week to check evasion, including granting wider powers of arrest to taxmen and making certain offences non-bailable. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, in his budget speech...

-Live Mint Evasion of duty of over Rs.50 lakh to be made non-bailable offence; arrest provisions under service tax proposed The government may find itself in hot water on budget proposals that make duty evasion beyond a certain threshold a non-bailable offence, allow arrest on suspected withholding of service tax, and provide tax authorities powers to recover dues from a defaulter’s bankers.   Although finance minister P. Chidambaram in his budget presentation on 28...

-The Business Standard The Union Budget shows the charitable instincts of the government continuing to overwhelm it - though some would call it part inefficiency and part helplessness. The exemptions given to citizens on the tax they ought to pay have been exceeding the Plan expenditure, and even the total fiscal deficit as it did in 2012-13. This has prompted criticism from the Left parties and activists, who view it as evidence...

-Reuters India’s efforts to clamp down on illegal mining have handed a $15 billion lifeline to global iron ore giants, and there could be more to come. Steps taken by central and state authorities to clean up the mining and export of iron ore have shut down output in two key producing states, slashing shipments and forcing steel mills to import a raw material the country has in abundance. Now the Shah Commission,...

-The Economic Times The fear of drought in India has abated with late precipitation of the monsoon in September this year. However, the country continues to suffer from a drought of formalised tabulated data of agro items on a real-time or monthly basis, though many estimates continue to fatigue the print and electronic media.  Red or green prices flashing on computer screens are taken for 'granted', but the discovery of future or...