-The Economic Times If India is now debating opening the books and operations of political parties to the public, it's because of these six people who pulled strategic levers and applied relentless pressure. Soma Banerjee traces a four-year effort that converted intent to action Balwant Singh Khera, a politician from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, is not a name that will strike a chord in mainstream politics or social discourse today. It might in...
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President Pranab Mukherjee hits out at MNCs for their ‘intent to dodge tax’
-The Times of India NAGPUR: President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday slammed multinational companies saying they only looked for oversees locations with an intention to dodge taxes, raising eyebrows at a time when the country is desperately wooing foreign capital to plug a widening current account deficit. Addressing a function at the National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT), Mukherjee said more than three-fourths of business transactions nowadays took place through the units of...
More »Panchayati raj: Key to good governance and inclusion-Anil Padmanabhan
-Live Mint It's obvious that Indian experience with local governance is not what it should have been, but a change is underway Later this week, the country will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the constitutional amendments that made it mandatory for the creation of panchayats-the village-level bodies that deliver self-governance. Most may not be aware that this could well have been the eve of its 25th anniversary, but for the three-vote defeat...
More »The feeding frenzy of kleptocracy-P Sainath
-The Hindu Since 2005-06, taxes and duties for the corporate world and the rich have been written off at the rate of Rs.7 million a minute on average. Duties waived on gold and diamonds in the last 36 months equal the 2G scam amount Forbes has just added an “errata” to Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s budget speech. The Minister had found a mere 42,800 people in the country with a taxable...
More »The taxman is watching, says FinMin-Remya Nair
-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...
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