A document of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) dated 25th June, 2018 says that the number of members subscribing to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) scheme gives one an idea of the level of employment in the formal sector viz. mostly employment in establishments employing 20 or more persons (though EPF is applicable for certain organisations, which employ less than 20 persons, subject to certain conditions and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The income tax department has allowed referral kickbacks paid to doctors by private hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres and spending on advertisements by doctors as expenses despite such expenditure being disallowed and unethical, a parliamentary panel said on Thursday. The public accounts committee for the Union finance ministry's department of revenue has cited an audit that found that in 19 instances in eight states, income-tax officers had...

-Financial Express After presenting the Budget 2018, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave a name to government’s ambitious healthcare scheme Ayushmann Bharat: Modicare. He said that nobody knew whether Obamacare was successful but Modicare will become successful in every possible way. Dubbed as “world’s largest government-funded health care programme” aims to provide health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family per annum to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. While the programme...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Controversy has again enveloped the bailiwick of the chief economic adviser to the finance ministry amid suggestions that the Narendra Modi government has lowered the academic credentials and experience for the next incumbent who will replace Arvind Subramanian. Congress leader Ahmed Patel stirred the pot with a tweet: "Why has government diluted the educational and professional requirements for the post of chief economic advisor? Economist positions, even in...

-PTI   New Delhi: Heads of 11-state owned banks will apprise a parliamentary committee about the problems of mounting bad loans and increasing fraud cases on Tuesday, sources said. They will be appearing before the Standing Committee on Finance, headed by veteran Congress leader M Veerappa Moily, which is looking into ‘Banking Sector in India- Issues, Challenges and the Way Forward, including Non- Performing Assets/ Stressed Assets in Banks/Financial Institutions’. Top officials of IDBI...