People refuel their vehicles at a petrol pump in Bengaluru on May 15, 2026.
| Photo Credit: J. Allen Egenuse

Finance Concept with Stack of Coins – 100 percent FDI or Foreign Direct Investment on wooden blocks
| Photo Credit: lakshmiprasad S

M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services addresses the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII post budget session, in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: ANI

The Finance Ministry is considering raising the current limit of ₹5 lakh for deposit insurance, Secretary to the Department of Financial Services M. Nagaraju said at a post-Budget press briefing in Mumbai on Monday (February 17, 2025).

“That [increasing deposit insurance] is under active consideration. As and when the government approves, we will notify it,” he said. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, along with other secretaries in various departments, was present at the briefing.

The official’s statement comes days after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) placed curbs on the Mumbai-based New India Co-operative Bank for lack of liquidity. The bank’s General Manager and Head of Accounts, Hitesh Mehta, was later found to have embezzled ₹122 crore over a year and was put in police custody for five days on February 16.

Mr. Nagaraju, however, declined to comment on the matter, saying the RBI had taken action on the issue.

‘Job of regulator’

Asked about the safety of deposits in co-operative banks, Secretary to Department of Economic Affairs Ajay Seth maintained that it was the job of the regulator and that co-operative banks were working well in many States. “The co-operative banks in the country today are under investigation. If there is any weakness in this, then it is the work of the regulator. If there is any weakness in this, then regulatory action should be taken on it. But it is not right to take a decision on the whole sector with the action of one bank. Co-operative banks are working very well in various States. There should not be any confusion about them. It is a well-regulated sector now.” said Mr. Seth.

Money deposited by bank customers is insured under the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation Act, 1961 by the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), a company under the Finance Ministry. When a bank fails due to uncertainties and the RBI steps in to stop withdrawals, the DICGC acts as a guard to secure the money of depositors.

The insurance company has been effective since January 1968. The deposit insurance limit was increased to ₹5 lakh in 2020 from ₹1 lakh that was fixed in 1993, following the failure of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank.

New Delhi:

The Finance Ministry on Saturday notified the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) which promises an assured pension of 50 per cent of the average basic pay drawn over the last 12 months prior to superannuation.

The UPS would be applicable to Central Government employees who are covered under the National Pension System and who choose this option under the National Pension System, according to a gazette notification issued by the Finance Ministry.

UPS or assured payout would not be available in case of removal or dismissal from service or resignation of the employee, as per the notification published on Saturday.

As per the notification dated January 24, the rate of full assured payout will be 50 per cent of 12 monthly average basic pay, immediately prior to superannuation subject to a minimum qualifying service of 25 years against a market returns linked payout under the NPS.

The notification will give the option to 23 lakh government employees to choose between UPS and NPS, which came into effect on January 1, 2004.

In case of a lesser qualifying service period, the proportionate payout would be admissible, it said, adding a minimum guaranteed payout of Rs 10,000 per month shall be assured in case superannuation is after ten years or more of qualifying service.

The effective date for operationalisation of the Unified Pension Scheme would be April 1, 2025.

In cases of voluntary retirement after a minimum 25 years of qualifying service, assured payout will commence from the date on which the employee would have superannuated, if he had continued in service, it said.

“In case of death of the payout holder after superannuation, family payout at the rate of 60 per cent of the payout admissible to the payout holder, immediately before his demise, will be assured to the legally wedded spouse (spouse legally wedded as on the date of superannuation or on the date of voluntary retirement or retirement under FR 56(j), as may be applicable,” it said.

Dearness Relief will be available on the assured payout and family payout, as the case may be, it said, adding, the Dearness Relief will be worked out in the same manner as Dearness Allowance applicable to serving employees.

Dearness Relief based on All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW) as in case of service employees.

“The existing Central Government Employees under National Pension System (NPS), on the effective date of operationalisation of the UPS option, as well as the future employees of Central Government can choose to either take the Unified Pension Scheme option under the NPS or continue with the NPS without the Unified Pension Scheme option,” it said.

Once an employee covered under NPS, who is in service on the effective date of operationalisation of the UPS option, exercises the UPS option, the outstanding corpus in the employees Permanent Retirement Account Number would be transferred to the employee’s individual corpus under the Unified Pension Scheme, it said.

At superannuation or retirement, it said, the qualifying service of the employee under the UPS option, will be determined by the Head of Office, where he or she is employed.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority may issue regulations for operationalising Unified Pension Scheme.

The UPS, effective from April 1, 2025, will increase the government’s contribution from the current 14 per cent to 18.5 per cent.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 24, 2024, approved the UPS.

Under the old pension scheme (OPS), effective before January 2004, employees got 50 per cent of their last drawn basic pay as pension.

Unlike the old pension scheme, UPS is contributory in nature, wherein employees will be required to contribute 10 per cent of their basic salary and dearness allowance while the employer’s contribution (the central government) will be 18.5 per cent.

However, the eventual payout depends on the market returns on that corpus, mostly invested in government debt.

Employees, under the OPS, were not required to make any contribution. They, however, contributed to the General Provident Fund (GPF). The accumulated amount, along with interest, was paid to the employee at the time of retirement.

As the NPS was less attractive than the OPS, several non-BJP-ruled states decided to go back to the old pension scheme, which offered a DA-linked benefit.

This prompted the Centre to constitute a committee in April 2023, under former Finance Secretary and now Cabinet Secretary-designate TV Somanathan to suggest improvement in the NPS architecture.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

With the Union Budget 2025-26 slated for February 1, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has demanded a slew of measures from the Finance Ministry, urging that the focus should be on boosting consumption, upping the daily minimum wage, and raising the annual payout under the PM-KISAN scheme, among others.

CII demanded that to boost consumption, especially at the lower income level, reducing excise duty on fuel is crucial, as fuel prices significantly drive inflation, forming a substantial portion of the overall household consumption basket.

The central excise duty alone accounts for approximately 21 per cent of the retail price for petrol and 18 per cent for diesel.

The industry body added that since May 2022, these duties have not been adjusted in line with the approximately 40 per cent decrease in global crude prices. Lowering excise duty on fuel would help reduce overall inflation and increase disposable incomes, it added.

“Domestic consumption has been critical to India’s growth story, but inflationary pressures have somewhat eroded the purchasing power of consumers. Government interventions could focus on enhancing disposable incomes and stimulating spending to sustain economic momentum”, said Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII.

“Persistent food inflationary pressures particularly impinge upon low-income rural households who allocate a larger share to food in their consumption basket,” added Banerjee.

“While recent quarters have shown promising signs of recovery in rural consumption, targeted government interventions, such as increasing per-unit benefits under its key schemes like MGNREGS, PM-KISAN and PMAY, and providing consumption vouchers to low-income households, can further enhance the rural recovery,” remarked Banerjee.

It recommended that the gap between the highest marginal rate for individuals at 42.74 per cent and the normal corporate tax rate at 25.17 per cent is high. Further, inflation has reduced the buying power of lower- and middle-income earners. The budget could consider reducing marginal tax rates for personal income up to Rs 20 lakh per annum. This would help trigger the virtuous cycle of consumption, higher growth and higher tax revenue, the CII added.

The industry body recommended an increase in the daily minimum wage under the MGNREGS from Rs 267 to Rs 375 as suggested by the ‘Expert Committee on Fixing National Minimum Wage’ in 2017.

CII Research estimations show that this will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 42,000 crore.

To boost consumption in rural areas, it is recommended to raise the annual payout under the PM-KISAN scheme from Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000.

The CII stated that increasing the unit costs under the PMAY-G and PMAY-U schemes should be considered, which have not been revised since the scheme’s inception.

CII suggested introducing consumption vouchers, targeted at low-income groups, which will stimulate demand for specified goods and services over a designated period.

The vouchers could be designed to be spent on designated items (specific goods and services) and could be valid for a designated time (like 6-8 months) to ensure spending.

The beneficiary criteria can be defined as Jan-Dhan account holders who are not beneficiaries of other welfare schemes, CII added.

To encourage bank deposit growth, CII, in its budget proposals for 2024-25, has suggested taxing interest income from deposits at a lower rate and reducing the lock-in period for fixed deposits with preferential tax treatment from the current five to three years, which can help boost bank deposits.

Bank deposits as a proportion of households’ financial assets have declined from 56.4 percent in FY20 to 45.2 per cent in FY24.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Finance Ministry acknowledged emerging concerns of softening consumer sentiments and faltering demand, particularly in urban India, as well as a moderation in industrial momentum in recent months, even as it maintained that the economy will grow between 6.5% and 7% through 2024-25.

The Finance Ministry on Monday (October 28, 2024) acknowledged emerging concerns of softening consumer sentiments and faltering demand, particularly in urban India, as well as a moderation in industrial momentum in recent months, even as it maintained that the economy will grow between 6.5% and 7% through 2024-25.

Contrary to rural demand that has perked up with a favourable monsoon, the Ministry’s latest monthly economic review pointed to evidence of a slowdown in urban demand as reflected in the performance of various indicators during the first half of FY25.

The Department of Economic Affairs’ publication cited the drop in volume growth in urban sales of fast moving consumer goods, the 2.3% contraction in automobile sales in the first half of this year “mainly due to the lower sales in the second quarter [Q2]”, and a decline in housing sales and launches in Q2.

These trends “may be largely explained by softening consumer sentiments, limited footfall due to above-normal rainfall, and seasonal periods during which people tend to refrain from new purchases,” noted the review, whose last iteration in September had first flagged concerns about ‘incipient signs of strains in certain sectors’.

‘Not promising’

While the Ministry is hopeful of rural demand picking up further, it did not appear as sanguine about overall consumption trends, stating that “underlying demand conditions bear watching”. “Going forward, the ongoing festive season and improvement in consumer sentiments may boost urban consumer demand. However, early indications were not particularly promising,” it added.

The review also noted that manufacturing grew just 1% in August and the momentum in the sector “seems to have softened in September from the very strong growth in the summer months”, reasoning that lower international oil prices and increased oil imports may have influenced domestic refinery output, while steel output was likely affected by moderation in automobiles’ growth.

The Ministry’s comments about the pain points in the economy assume significance, coming amid a tepid Q2 results season for corporate India and soon after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) October bulletin referred to slackening momentum in indicators such as Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections, bank credit growth and merchandise export.

The FinMin’s economic review, however, cited the latest RBI surveys on consumer confidence, to point to a “sequential improvement in consumers’ optimism”, and the manufacturing sector as an indicator of optimism among producers.

While India’s economic performance has been “satisfactory” in the first half of this year, the Ministry said growth risks arise from escalating geopolitical conflicts, deepening geo-economic fragmentation and elevated valuations in financial markets in some advanced economies. “Their spillover effects on India could cause negative wealth effects, impacting household sentiments and altering spending intentions on durable goods,” the review cautioned.

Finance Ministry. File
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The finance ministry on Wednesday said more than 34.84 lakh audit reports, including about 34.09 lakh Tax Audit Reports (TARs), have been filed for assessment year 2024-25 on the e-filing portal till October 7.

The income tax department had extended the date for filing the audit report from September 30 to October 7. There is an increase in the filing of TARs for the AY 2024-25 by around 4.8% compared to the filings of TARs on the due date for AY 2023-24.

Extensive outreach programmes conducted

“To assist taxpayers, the department conducted extensive outreach programmes through emails, SMSs, webinars, social media campaigns and messages on the Income Tax portal to create and raise awareness among taxpayers about filing TARs and other audit forms by the due date. Various user awareness videos were uploaded on the Income Tax portal to provide guidance,” the Ministry said in a release.

It further said that these concerted efforts have been helpful to taxpayers and tax professionals in timely compliance in filing TARs.

Helpdesk support

According to the Finance Ministry, the e-filing helpdesk team handled around 1.23 lakh queries from taxpayers during September and October 2024, proactively supporting them throughout the filing period. The team assisted taxpayers and tax professionals in resolving complexities and facilitated smooth submission of audit forms.

Helpdesk support was provided through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, WebEx, and co-browsing sessions. The team also supported the resolution of queries received on the department’s X handle through Online Response Management (ORM) and assisted them on various issues on a near real-time basis.

CAG has asked the Finance Ministry to identify high risk taxpayers in the GST composition scheme on a periodical basis and verify from other sources, including third parties, their declared value of sales to check tax evasion.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has asked the Finance Ministry to identify high risk taxpayers in the GST composition scheme on a periodical basis and verify from other sources, including third parties, their declared value of sales to check tax evasion.

Based on an analysis of 8.66 lakh composition taxpayers under the central jurisdiction between 2019-20 to 2021-22 fiscals, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) found that a significant number of GST taxpayers have a high risk of crossing the turnover threshold for composition levy scheme (CLS).

These high risk taxpayers were identified by audit from the data contained in GST returns viz. GSTR-4A, GSTR-7 along with third party data sources such as IT returns, ‘Vahan’ database etc.

The GST composition scheme is available to taxpayers whose aggregate turnover, in the preceding financial year, has not exceeded ₹1.5 crore. For taxpayers in special category states, this limit is ₹75 lakh.

The CAG said two major risk areas in respect of CLS taxpayers are under-declaration of the ‘value of outward supply’ by the taxpayers to continue in the scheme; and non-fulfillment of eligibility conditions for availing CLS.

The audit also observed that there were certain CLS taxpayers who were continuing in the Scheme despite not fulfilling the eligibility criteria prescribed in the Act and the Rules, and a substantial number of CLS taxpayers were not discharging their obligatory responsibilities of filing returns and payment of tax under reverse charge.

“The Ministry should identify high risk taxpayers in the CLS on a periodical basis using a risk-based approach and verify their declared value of outward supply from other sources including third parties to minimize the possibility of misuse by ineligible persons,” the CAG said in a report tabled in Parliament recently.

The official auditor also suggested that the Finance Ministry may develop a system of identifying ineligible taxpayers and take action to exclude them from the CLS in order to prevent misuse of the intended benefits of the scheme.

The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has urged the Ministry of Finance to reduce the GST on digital news subscriptions. In a letter dated July 22, I&B secretary Sanjay Jaju requested his revenue counterpart Sanjay Malhotra to either exempt the GST on digital news subscriptions or reduce it from 18 per cent to five per cent.

He cited that newspapers were exempted from GST because the significance of giving “correct and factual information” to citizens was recognised. He also said that a similar disparity between printed books and e-books was addressed in 2018 when the GST Council reduced the GST rate on e-books from 18 per cent to 5 per cent.

“The number of paid subscribers for online news in India is very small as compared to the overall number of users accessing news on the internet. In this regard, it is observed that a higher rate of GST on digital news subscriptions may skew further growth of the online news sector towards an advertising model which may impact the quality and credibility of the news content on the internet through practices such as the use of clickbait and sensational headlines, and fake and misleading news, etc,” the letter read.

“Recognizing the significance of the availability of correct and actual information for the citizens of the country, printed newspapers are exempted from GST. With the growing internet penetration in India and the nascent stage of the online news industry, it may be
appropriate that online news subscriptions are treated at par with printed newspapers or ebooks for the purpose of GST,” Mr Jaju said.

He stated that the 18% GST on the Rs 120 crore online news subscriptions industry brings tax revenue of about Rs. 21.6 crore and that if the GST on digital newspaper subscriptions is brought down from 18% to nil, or to 5% at par with e-books, it may not lead to substantial revenue forgone by the Government exchequer.

Rescuers and other stand amid debris after landslides hit hilly villages in Wayanad district, Kerala on July 30, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Finance Ministry on August 3 urged all Public Sector Insurance companies to extend all possible support to Kerala calamity victims so that their insurance claims can be expeditiously processed and paid.

“In view of the unfortunate landslide incident and heavy rains in Kerala, the government has mandated the Public Sector Insurance companies (PSICs), including Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance to extend all possible support to the victims of the calamity so that the insurance claims can be expeditiously processed and paid,” the Finance Ministry said in a post on X.

“The insurance companies have initiated efforts for reaching out to their policyholders through various channels [local newspapers, social media, company websites, SMS, etc.] to provide the contact details for assistance in the districts of Wayanad, Palakkad, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and Thrissur, where a significant number of claims are being reported,” it said.

“LIC has been asked to speedily disburse the claim amount in respect of the policyholders under the PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana. The documentation required for processing of claims has been relaxed comprehensively to ensure speedy dispersal of the claim amount,” it added.

The General Insurance Council will coordinate with the insurance companies to ensure that claims are processed and paid expeditiously and will host a portal for all insurers to report claim status daily, the Finance Ministry said.

“The Central Government and the Finance Ministry remain committed to supporting the victims of this calamity and ensuring they receive the necessary assistance without delay and trouble,” it noted.