-The Hindu Despite being specialists, they are relegated to the margins The Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT), a wing of the Ministry of Finance, has initiated disciplinary proceedings against some Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officers for a report they submitted to the government recently. The officers are not corrupt, nor did they abuse any Minister or any functionary of the government. So, what was their crime? A group of 50 IRS officers...

-The Hindu India slid into the pandemic crisis in the backdrop of economic downslide; fiscal stimulus has to be structured The impact of COVID-19 will be debilitating for the global as well as the Indian economies. Various institutions have assessed India’s growth prospects for 2020-21 ranging from 0.8% (Fitch) to 4.0% (Asian Development Bank). This wide range indicates the extent of uncertainty and tentative nature of these forecasts. The International Monetary Fund...

-Newsclick.in The BJP government’s centralising tendency and its attitude towards the financial needs of states during this pandemic, is symptomatic of a thinking that will weaken the very foundations of modern India. Despite repeated demands by the states, the Centre has still not released what is their legitimate due, namely, compensation for their revenue loss owing to the introduction of goods and services tax or GST; this has not been paid since...

-Scroll.in The finance ministry has directed the CBDT chairperson to seek an explanation from these officers for writing such ‘ill-conceived views’ in public. The Centre on Sunday rejected a proposal made by officials of the Indian Revenue Service suggesting the government should increase taxes to cushion the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. The Centre called it “an act of indiscipline”, NDTV reported. In a 44-page report titled FORCE, or Fiscal Options and...

-Business Standard/ NIPFP Strap: It recognises that the medium-term fiscal arithmetic does not afford space for expansionary fiscal policy   In my column on the FY20 Budget (A silent fiscal crisis, July 5, 2019), I had warned that the government faced a structural fiscal constraint that was concealed by using incorrectly optimistic numbers for revenue receipts. This year’s Budget is transparent. But the government continues to be heavily fiscally constrained due to inadequate...