-The Economic Times   Newly appointed railway minister Mukul Roy announced a rollback in some of the rail fares that were announced last week in the Rail Budget. Mukul Roy told Parliament that fares for first and second class passengers in air-conditioned carriages would still go up, but there would be no increase for other classes of travel more commonly used by the poor. "The proposal to increase (fares) will impact the...

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...

The government plans to cut its subsidy bill to under 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012-13, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech on Friday. High crude oil prices and burgeoning fertilizer subsidies, primarily on account of imported non-urea fertilizers, have meant India’s subsidy bill has zoomed to Rs2.16 trillion, or 2.5% of the GDP. Mukherjee has set an ambitious target to reduce this to under 1.75%...

-The Hindu   5.6 per cent of the households now comprise single couple There is a quantum jump in the number of families going nuclear in Andhra Pradesh in just about a decade (2001-2011) with 75.6 per cent of the households now comprising single couple, indicating a major societal shift from the traditional joint family system, Census 2011has revealed. The rate at which families are turning nuclear in the State could be gauged from...

-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...