-The Hindu No decision taken yet on which banks will be privatised, Finance Minister says. Fresh from presenting a Budget that represents a clean break from past policies, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was in Chennai last weekend to hear feedback from industrialists and common citizens. “This is a Budget that was put through the wringer to ensure that every number was credible and achievable and did not reflect over-ambition,” she said,...

-The Hindu To show Indian agriculture as being net taxed to argue for the farm laws has poor conceptual validity Over the past three decades, a major rationale offered in favour of liberalising Indian agriculture was that farmers were “net taxed”. In other words, incomes of farmers were kept artificially lower than what they should have been. It was argued that this “net Taxation” existed because protectionist policies deprived farmers of higher...

-The Hindu The Finance Minister must move to an expansionary fiscal stance that prioritises job creation, public service provision It is that time of year in India, when all eyes and ears turn to the Finance Minister to learn what she will unveil in the annual Union Budget. But it is a moot point whether, even in a year of the novel coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, that speech will be of...

-The Hindu Business Line The government plans to bring in structural reforms in this crucial sector. But the devil lies in the detail India has huge mineral deposits, but the country’s mining sector is still suffering from legacy issues. Making a fresh attempt for a course correction, the Union Cabinet recently approved a blueprint to usher in reforms in the mining sector. This blueprint, which will be presented in the coming Parliament session,...

-The Indian Express As countries calibrate their response to competing demands for sovereignty to tax, DST is an interim alternative outside tax treaties. It possesses the advantage of taxing incomes that currently escape tax and creates space to negotiate a final, overarching solution to this conundrum. The Taxation of digital companies has been a key concern for G20 countries. The agenda to reform international tax law so that digital companies are taxed...