New Delhi Apr 26 PTI Insurance giant LIC has fixed the price band at Rs 902-949 per share for the Rs 21000 crore public offer that is likely to open on May 4 sources said According to sources Life Insurance Corporation LIC would offer a Rs 60 discount for policyholders and Rs 40 for retail investors and employees The issue is likely to open for subscription on May 4 and is expected to close on May 9 The government had in February planned to sell s 5 per cent stake or 316 crore shares of the insurance behemoth and had filed draft papers with Sebi However the IPO plans faced headwinds due to the ongoing market volatility amid the Russia-Ukraine war Last week the government decided to lower the issue size to 35 per cent PTI JD DP MR

New Delhi Apr 24 PTI The GST Council has not sought views from states on hiking tax rates sources said on Sunday They said that the panel of ministers looking into GST rate rationalisation is yet to submit its report to the GST Council Stating that views have not been sought from states on hiking rates on 143 items sources said there is also no proposal to shift more than half of items to the highest tax GST slab of 28 per cent The Council had last year set up a panel of state ministers headed by Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to suggest ways to augment revenue by rationalising tax rates PTI JD ANZ DRR

New Delhi Feb 27 PTI The government is looking to hire a person to manage and monetise land as well as other immovable properties of AI Assets Holding Ltd AIAHL that are estimated to be worth around Rs 14000 crore The designation of the person will be Chief of Properties and Monetisation Officer and will report to the board of AIAHL which was set up in 2019 for holding the debt and non-core assets of Air India Air India which was state-owned at that time was acquired by Tatas in January this year The non-core assets of Air India including land and building valued at Rs 14718 crore are with AIAHL AIAHL is looking to appoint for three years a Chief of Properties and Monetisation Officer with a minimum of 10-year experience in properties and real estate management landproperties acquisition or monetisationdisposal according to an advertisement The monthly salary and allowances of the selected candidate would be Rs 150 lakh with a provision of a three per cent annual increment The last date for submitting applications for the post is March 7 Bachelors degree in civil engineering will be the basic qualification for such candidates and having an MBA degree from a premier institute will be given preference according to the advertisement As the Chief of Properties and Monetisation Officer the candidate would be the in-charge of all the properties and real estate management activities of AIAHL The candidate will also look into landproperties transferacquisitionleasing monetisationdisposal Among other responsibilities the candidate will be required to do assets planning and budgeting costs monitoring of properties arrange effective upkeep and maintenance of ownleased properties handle their legal and statutory and regulatory compliances and management PTI JD RAM HRS hrs

New Delhi Feb 22 PTI Cautioning public against falling prey to fraudulent job offers the Income Tax Department on Tuesday said aspirants should only consider offers or advertisements on official websites of SSC or the department Income Tax Department cautions the public not to fall prey to fraudulent persons misleading job-aspirants by issuing fake appointment letters for joining the Department the I-T department tweeted In a public notice the apex direct tax body said it has come to its notice that some fraudulent persons are misleading candidates by issuing fake appointment letters for joining the I-T department It said direct recruitment in all Group B and C posts are conducted by the Staff Selection Commission SSC and notificationresults are made available on the SSC website Thereafter regional allocation of the candidate is done and the list is uploaded on the I-T department portal The general public is hereby cautionedadvised against taking cognizance of such fake advertisementnotificationappointment letters advertisedcirculated through any other platform portal other than the official websites of the SSC and the Income Tax department it said in the public notice PTI JD ANU ANU

New Delhi Jan 31 PTI GST collection in January crossed Rs 138 lakh crore in January a growth of 15 per cent over the year-ago period Total number of GSTR-3B returns filed up to January 30 2022 is 105 crore that includes 36 lakh quarterly returns the Finance Ministry said January is the fourth straight month when Goods and Services Tax collection has crossed Rs 130 lakh crore The gross GST revenue collected in the month of January 2022 till 3 PM on 31012022 is Rs 138394 crore of which CGST is Rs 24674 crore SGST is Rs 32016 crore IGST is Rs 72030 crore including Rs 35181 crore collected on import of goods and cess is Rs 9674 crore including Rs 517 crore collected on import of goods the ministry said The highest monthly GST collection has been Rs 139708 crore in the month of April 2021 The revenues for the month of January 2022 are 15 per cent higher than the GST revenues in the same month last year and 25 per cent higher than the GST revenues in January 2020 Coupled with economic recovery anti-evasion activities especially action against fake billers have been contributing to the enhanced GST The improvement in revenue has also been due to various rate rationalisation measures undertaken by the Council to correct inverted duty structure the ministry said It is expected that the positive trend in the revenues will continue in the coming months as well it added PTI JD MKJ

New Delhi Jan 27 PTI After a hiatus of nearly two decades the governments programme to privatise state-owned firms restarted with the handing over of debt-laden national carrier Air India to the Tata Group With the new owner shelling out Rs 18000 crore for the buyout of the Maharaja this would be the highest-ever amount garnered through privatisation and is even more than the cumulative sum mopped up through strategic sales from 1999-00 to 2003-04 The government had in October last year inked the share purchase agreement with the Tata Group for sale of national carrier Air India for Rs 18000 crore Tatas would pay Rs 2700 crore cash and take over Rs 15300 crore of the airlines debt The deal also includes sale of Air India Express and ground handling arm AISATS The government had garnered roughly over Rs 5000 crore during that five-year period by privatising 10 CPSEs Besides three hotel properties of Hotel Corporation of India and 18 of ITDC were also sold off by way of slump sale Here is a timeline of strategic sale of central public sector enterprises CPSEs to private entities between 1999-00 to 2003-04 1999-00 - Modern Food Industries Ltd -- Rs 105 crore 2000-01 - BALCO Lagan Jute Machinery Co Ltd -- Rs 554 crore 2001-02 - VSNL Computer Maintenance Corporation CMC Hindustan Teleprinters Ltd HTL Paradeep Phosphate Ltd PPL some hotel properties of HCI and ITDC -- Rs 2089 crore 2002-03 - Hindustan Zinc Ltd HZL Indian Petrochemicals Corporation IPCL some ITDC hotel properties -- Rs 2335 crore 2003-04 - HZL second tranche Jessop Co -- Rs 342 crore The government has also sold its majority stake in certain CPSEs to public sector companies operating in the same sector This includes sale of 74 per cent government stake in Indo Burma Petroleum Co IBP to Indian Oil Corp IOC in 2001-02 for Rs 1153 crore and Oil and Natural Gas Corp ONGC buying out government stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd HPCL for Rs 36915 crore in 2018 Besides governments 5263 per cent stake in REC was sold to Power Finance Corp for Rs 14500 crore in 2018-19 Between 2000-01 and 2019-20 the government has sold its entire stake in nine CPSEs to other similarly placed public sector enterprises garnering a cumulative Rs 53450 crore The privatisation process witnessed stagnation post 2004 as the focus shifted to selling minority stake in CPSEs through follow on public offer FPO and offer for sale OFS and also stock exchange listing of profitable CPSEs In the 2021-22 Budget the government announced the PSE public sector enterprises privatisation policy as per which all PSUs will be privatised barring those in four strategic sectors of atomic energy space and defence transport and telecommunications power petroleum coal and other minerals and banking insurance and financial services Even in these strategic sectors the government will retain only a bare minimum number of PSUs In her Budget speech Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said strategic disinvestment of BPCL Air India Shipping Corporation of India Container Corporation of India IDBI Bank BEML Pawan Hans Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd among others and IPO of LIC would be completed in 2021-22 Besides two public sector banks and one general insurance company would be privatised as per the privatisation agenda The Budget for 2021-22 has set a disinvestment target of Rs 175 lakh crore compared to around Rs 32835 crore estimated to be garnered in the last fiscal Of the Rs 175 lakh crore Rs 1 lakh crore is to come from selling government stake in public sector banks and financial institutions while Rs 75000 crore will be CPSE disinvestment receipts So far Rs 9330 crore has been raised through sale of minority stake in Axis Bank NMDC Ltd Housing and Urban Development Corp HUDCO and Hindustan Copper Additionally Rs 2700 crore will come from the Air India sale PTI JD ANZ ANZ ABM ABM

New Delhi Dec 28 PTI Over 467 crore Income Tax Returns have been filed including over 1549 lakh ITRs filed on December 27 alone the I-T department said on Tuesday The last date for filing ITRs for 2020-21 fiscal ended March 31 2021 by individual taxpayers is December 31 extended from the original date of July 31 2021 A total of 46745249 ITRs have been filed up to 27122021 including 1549831 ITRs filed on the day itself the department tweeted giving details of ITRs filed for Assessment Year 2021-22 2020-21 fiscal year This includes over 250 crore ITR-1 and over 117 crore ITR-4 ITR Form 1 Sahaj and ITR Form 4 Sugam are simpler forms that cater to a large number of small and medium taxpayers Sahaj can be filed by an individual having income up to Rs 50 lakh and who receives income from salary one house propertyother sources interest etc ITR-4 can be filed by individuals HUFs and firms with total income up to Rs 50 lakh and having income from business and profession For 2019-20 fiscal 595 crore ITRs were filed till the extended deadline of January 10 2021 PTI JD ANS ANS

New Delhi Dec 27 PTI The Finance Ministry on Monday said the recent raid on perfume trader Peeyush Jains house in Kanpur from where more than Rs 177 cr unaccounted cash was unearthed was the biggest ever seizure of cash by an enforcement agency The December 26 raid which resulted in Jains arrest included searches at Jains residentialfactory premises in Kannauj where about Rs 17 crore in cash have been recovered the ministry said in a release Further searches are underway at Jains residentialfactory premises in Kannauj The Ahmedabad unit of Directorate General of GST Intelligence DGGI on December 22 initiated search operations in Kanpur at the factory premises of manufacturers of Shikhar brand Pan Masala and Tobacco products the officeGodowns of Ms Ganpati Road Carriers Kanpur and the residentialfactory premises of Ms Odochem Industries suppliers of perfumery compounds at Kanpur and Kannauj After intercepting 4 trucks operated by Ms Ganpati Road Carriers carrying pan masala and tobacco of said brand cleared without payment of GST the officers tallied the actual stock available in the factory with the stock recorded in the books and found shortage of raw materials and finished products This further corroborated that the manufacturer was indulging in clandestine removal of goods with the help of transporter who used to issue fake invoices to manage the transportation of said goods The officers have also seized more than 200 such fake invoices The manufacturers of Shikhar brand of pan masalatobacco products have admitted and deposited an amount of Rs 309 crore towards their tax liability The ministry in a statement said that the search proceeding which was initiated at the residential premises of the partners of Ms Odochem Industries located at 143 Anadpuri Kanpur on December 22 has since been concluded The total amount of unaccounted cash recovered and seized from this premises is Rs 17745 crore This is the biggest ever seizure of cash by the CBIC officials The documents seized from the premises are under scrutiny it added Further search is on at the residentialfactory premises of Ms Odochem Industries at Kannauj So far DGGI officers have been able to recover about Rs 17 crore in cash which is presently being counted by the SBI officials In addition recovery of approximately 23 kg of gold and huge unaccounted raw materials used in manufacture of perfumery compounds including more than 600 kg of sandalwood oil hidden in an underground storage having a market value of about Rs 6 crore have been made Jains statement was recorded by GST officers on December 25 wherein he has accepted that the cash recovered from the residential premises is related to sale of goods without payment of GST In view of the overwhelming evidences available on record indicating large scale evasion of GST by Ms Odochem Industries Kannauj Shri Peeyush Jain has been arrested on 26122021 for commission of offences prescribed under section 132 of the CGST Act and has been produced before the Competent Court on December 27 the Ministry said adding the evidence collected during the searches conducted in last 5 days is being investigated thoroughly to unravel the tax evasion PTI JD ANZ MR MR

New Delhi Nov 17 PTI Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said there are clear signs of an uptick in the economy and the industry should now start taking risks and invest in capacity creation that will help cut reliance on imports I appeal to industry not to further delay increasing capacity not to further delay looking at areas to partner in technology she said while addressing CII Global Economic Policy Summit 2021 She also asked the industry to offer jobs to reduce income disparity and cut down on importing finished goods reduce and instead ramp up investment in manufacturing At a time when India is looking at impetus to growth I want Indian industry to be a lot more risk-taking and understand what India wants she said PTI JD ANZ ANS ANS

New Delhi Aug 23 PTI The government on Monday announced a Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Plan for monetising infrastructure assets across sectors from rail to road to power NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said projects have been identified to monetise assets over the next four years PTI JD ANZ ANZ ABM ABM ABM