Automakers In India Should Reduce Royalty Payments To Foreign Parents - Official

Indian automakers should reduce royalty payments to foreign partners to bring down costs instead of seeking tax cuts, a finance ministry official said on Thursday, days after reports that Toyota would halt expansion in the country due to high taxes.

The leaders of eight opposition parties on Thursday held a protest in the Parliament complex against the government, demanding GST dues. Congress leaders were absent from the protest.

MPs of several opposition parties protested in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Parliament premises on Thursday, demanding Goods and Services Tax (GST) payments to states.

Thirteen states have given their borrowing options proposed by the goods and services tax council to meet shortfall in compensation from the centre amid the coronavirus pandemic, sources in the Finance Ministry have said. Six more states - Goa, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh - will give their option in a day or two.

The CBI has filed a case against two top officers formerly with the tax anti-evasion wing of the GST for allegedly demanding a bribe of Rs five crore to settle a case probed by them, officials said on Saturday.

The centre vs states stand-off over Rs 2.35 lakh crore due in GST compensation and Covid-related relief payments will be placed before the Attorney General, Finance Ministry officials told a parliamentary panel Friday afternoon

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today said the Centre's reported proposal of giving "letter of comfort" to states to borrow money to bridge the GST compensation gap were "just words of comfort" on a piece of paper that has "no value".

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi released a new video today targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government for "destroying the unorganized sector" - which he had earlier called the backbone of the Indian economy - with the "sudden" nationwide lockdown to check the spread of the coronavirus.

Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram today tweeted a series of measures to boost consumption and raise money, including paying GST arrears to states, to pull the country's economy out of its sharpest nosedive on record.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi this morning tweeted a fresh video to attack the government as he blamed the ruling BJP for a record 23.9 per cent contraction in the economy, linking it with the controversy over the Goods and Services Tax.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the centre not giving full Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation to the states, saying this "act of sovereign default" runs against the very spirit of the cooperative federalism.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa "lacks courage" to fight against "the injustice", senior Congress leader Siddaramiah claimed on Thursday, as he hit out at the state government for accepting the Centre's option of borrowing to meet the shortfall in GST revenues.

The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of pushing the country towards an economic collapse and a financial emergency, and said noteban, GST and lockdown were "disaster strokes" not "master strokes".

The Congress today accused the Modi government of pushing the country towards an economic collapse and a financial emergency, and said notes ban, GST and lockdown were "disaster strokes" not "master strokes".