Finance Ministry sets Rs 1.1 lakh crore monthly GST target till March 2020

Crypto markets lose millions as Bitcoin slips below $7,000

The world's biggest cryptocurrency Bitcoin extended losing streak on Tuesday, slipping below the psychological $7,000 mark once again, wiping millions of dollars from the cryptocurrency market capitalisation. The cryptocurrency has fallen more than 50 per cent from its 2019 high of $13,879.21 touched in June.

IMF economist Gita Gopinath hints India's dream to achieve $5 trillion economy doubtful

The International Monetary Fund is set to join other downbeat analysts and cut the growth estimate for India "significantly", its India-born chief economist Gita Gopinath said on Tuesday.Gopinath said India is the only emerging market which has thrown a surprise of this kind. She also sounded doubtful about the country achieving $5 trillion GDP target by FY25. She pitched for the government utilising its massive mandate to bring in land and labour market reforms as essential aspects if India were to achieve its $5 trillion aspiration.

Finance Ministry sets Rs 1.1 lakh crore monthly GST target till March 2020

The Finance Ministry aims to bring in Rs 1.1 lakh crore as monthly GST collection for the next four months, sources said. The ministry wants one of these four months to have a GST mop-up of Rs 1.25 lakh crore. The tax officials have been asked by the Finance Ministry to take concerted measures to increase revenue collections over the next four months without troubling or harassing taxpayers.

Imran Khan says millions of Muslim refugees could flee India

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that millions of Muslims could flee India due to the curfew in the disputed territory of Kashmir and India's new citizenship law, creating "a refugee crisis that would dwarf other crises". "Our country will not be able to accommmodate more refugees," he added, urging the world to "step in now".

No free phone calls! TRAI to continue interconnection charges for one more year

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has decided to continue interconnection usage charges (IUC) for one more year till January 1, 2021. This means the callers will have to pay 6 paise per minute as interconnect charges till December 31, 2020. IUC are termination charges paid by a telecom service provider for a call originating on its network and ending on a different operator's network.

'No PMO interference': Piyush Goyal, Prakash Javadekar refute Raghuram Rajan's 'extreme centralisation' remark

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar refuted Raghuram Rajan's statement that the decision-making process is centred entirely around the Prime Minister's Office. The ministers also indicated that the ongoing economic slowdown is primarily due to transformation and will be reversed soon. Goyal, who was also part of the session, seconded Javadekar and added that PMO does not interfere in the decision-making at all. The Commerce Minister stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has very good ties with his cabinet ministers.