Early In Speech, Nirmala Sitharaman's Tribute To Arun Jaitley

Early in her presentation of the country's budget, finance minister Nirmala Sithraman referred to her predecessor, Arun Jaitley, and said his work on introducing the Goods and Services Tax was a huge contribution. Mr Jaitley died in August 25, 2019.

The Union Budget 2020-21 comes at a time when the economy is staring at a more than 11-year low annual expansion rate and thousands of job cuts amid weakness across sectors.

The Indian economy experienced some abrupt slowdown in 2019 due to turbulence in non-banking financial institutions and major reform measures such as GST and demonetisation, but it is not in a recession, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections have crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark for the third month in a row in January with improved compliance and plugging of evasion, sources said on Friday.

The Congress on Wednesday asked the government to announce a national farm loan waiver in the upcoming Union Budget and spell out measures to ensure that farmers' income doubles by 2022.

Union Budget 2020: Until the introduction of GST on petroleum products, suitable amendments in the CENVAT (Central Value Added Tax) rules will lower the production costs for oil and gas companies, according to the industry body.

Educational services provider have called upon the Finance Minister to move educational services to 0 per cent goods and services tax (GST) slab from currently under the 'exempt' category of GST,

It's not the first time SIAM has raised these demands, in fact it's been over a year the body has been asking to reduce GST rates in order to push sales during the prolonged slowdown.

In past, glitches in the return filing system of GST Network were reported on the last day of filing of returns and trade and industry had to face problems.

CII also said a high custom duty of 10 per cent is applicable on the import of intra ocular lenses, and an overall duty of 25.52 per cent (including GST) leading to higher healthcare service cost.

Pharma formulations attract GST of 12 per cent whereas inputs active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) have GST of 18 per cent which has led to accumulation of Input tax Credit.

In one of the biggest crackdowns on Goods And Services Tax (GST) evaders so far, the centre has launched an investigation against unidentified exporters who allegedly faked GST refunds worth Rs 350 crore.

The crisis in the auto sector presents a major problem for the government as it accounts for nearly half of the country's manufacturing output and employs more than 3.5 crore people directly and indirectly.

Ms Sitharaman assured traders that the government is making all attempts to simplify and rationalise the GST structure.