-Livemint.com The GST Council has fixed a 12% GST rate on fertilizers, up from the current 4-8% rates, depending on raw materials used and in which states the products are sold New Delhi: India’s landmark tax reform, the goods and services tax (GST), may not be good news for farmers. Retail prices of commonly used fertilizers and micronutrients are likely to increase, not only raising the cost of cultivation but also leading...

-The Pioneer While the Government has done its bit to boost the output of pulses, it has done little to check the nexus between politicians and grain traders For several decades, production of pulses in India has fallen substantially short in terms of consumption. This persistent deficit has led to intermittent bouts of spike in prices as imports (needed to plug it) have often come after lag and have failed to reach...

-PTI Allahabad: Guests in Kanjasa may not have a cakewalk in selecting which birthday party to attend on January 1. One in five persons will be blowing out candles the same day, thanks to a technical goof-up that has caused their new Aadhaar cards to mention January 1 as their official date of birth. Flooded with complaints from residents of the village near Allahabad that their cards do not mention the actual dates...

Much to our surprise, a careful relook at the newly released estimates on farm production from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare would reveal that the foodgrain production during the rabi season is likely to fall by almost 1 million tonne between 2013-14 and 2016-17. Please see chart-1. Amidst the celebration of a bumper harvest in the ongoing crop year, it needs to be explained why the rabi foodgrain output...

-Business Standard Relatives' accounts, meddling with accounting software and shell cos used to hide unaccounted cash Two major civil contractors of Bengaluru, who undertake state government civil contract works from irrigation and other departments, were alleged to have engaged in massive inflation of expenses and investment of unaccounted income in the purchase of immovable properties. Discreet enquiries by the Income Tax (I-T) department revealed that they were helping in the conversion of unaccounted...