The 13th Finance Commission (TFC) has recommended a return to fiscal consolidation and reform in expenditure management. It has also suggested the Centre offer states a share of revenue raised from levies such as cesses and surcharges, according to people familiar with the report. TFC, a statutory body tasked with suggesting ways in which taxes should be shared between the Centre and states and drawing up a road map towards fiscal...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran has said that Rs.56 crore has been sanctioned to Kerala State Civil Supplies Corporation (Supplyco) as part of the market intervention programmes initiated by the State government to control the price line. In an official statement here, Mr. Divakaran said the amount had been sanctioned as a follow-up to the decision taken at the December 8 meeting of the Cabinet sub-committee. The amount...

Toxin-mixed fuel may deter adulterators but will pose danger to users After indirectly helping adulterators for seven long months to make money by diverting the kerosene meant for BPL families for mixing it with diesel, oil marketing companies (OMCs) are now thinking of introducing chemical markers which are hazardous for health and environment. The OMCs argued that during the technical evaluation of the markers, the hazardous chemicals would be removed....

Right time for policy reform The government is set to face disappointment on its expectation that the fertiliser Subsidy will go down sharply this year due to a softening of international prices of fertilisers. It now appears almost certain that the total payable Subsidy in 2009-10 may be around Rs 70,000 crore, against the budgetary provision of under Rs 50,000 crore. Since the government has made it clear that no additional...

While the government may have got reprieve with the fair and remunerative price, the mills are expected to move the courts On October 21, the Central government came out with an ordinance that it will henceforth announce a fair and remunerative price for sugarcane, instead of the statutory minimum price. Millions of farmers across the country grow sugarcane which they sell to sugar mills. To make sure that prices don’t tank...