Department Financial News

A federal judge is siding with the Biden administration and blocking JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, saying the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition

Student and legal advocacy groups are petitioning the U.S. Department of Agriculture to lift the interview requirement for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program applicants to receive food aid

A Japanese fire department says a Korean Air plane carrying 289 people hit a parked Cathay Pacific aircraft while being pushed by a vehicle from a parking spot at northern Japan’s New Chitose Airport

By Nate Raymond and David Shepardson

HSBC has filed a contempt of court case against the Central government, alleging non-compliance with the Bombay High Court's ruling concerning a service tax refund. The Bombay High Court had earlier ruled in favour of HSBC in a service tax dispute and asked the tax department to refund the service tax. HSBC has alleged that the government has not complied with the court order. HSBC had got its books and records audited for the period March 2007 to 2012.

Union budget consists of more than a dozen documents. The budget is structured in a way which helps the finance minister present it with clarity and in a detailed manner while also following what the law lays down. Certain documents which are part of the budget are mandatory under the law, such as the Annual Financial Statement, Finance Bill and Fiscal Policy Statements. Many other documents are necessitated for quick and easy understanding of the budget. Read our full Budget 2024 coverage here The budget begins with the finance minister's speech which summarises the state of the economy, the projections for the next year, the government's policy focus, and allocations for different departments and ministries. Below are details about other parts of the budget. Annual Financial Statement The Annual Financial Statement is mandated by Article 112 of the Constitution of India. It shows the estimated receipts and expenditure of the government for the next financial year along with actual numbers for the current financial year.

Bar and Bench reported. The bench has now referred the matter to the Chief Justice of India (CJI). The plea filed by Chandrababu Naidu had challenged the high court order refusing to quash the FIR against the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in the Skill Development Corporation scam case.

Union Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present an interim budget on February 1. This budget is not expected to include any major announcements — that will be left to the full budget which will be presented by the new government elected after the Lok Sabha elections in May. However, the interim budget will include what is at the heart of a budget — projections for the coming financial year, that is the calculations about income, spending and borrowings. Read our full Budget 2024 coverage How does the budget math work? What are the key calculations that go into the making of a budget? The process of budget-making is a forward-looking exercise, since it is for the coming year, and is based on several assumptions. The budget in effect is a matter of several projected numbers.

chargesheet against former Indian Rail Finance Corporation (IRFC) chairman and managing director Amitabha Banerjee for alleged irregularities in the purchase of gift items at exorbitant prices, officials said on Tuesday. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted its findings to a special court here after nearly three months of probe against Banerjee, they said, adding that the agency has invoked provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against him.

Binance has unveiled its joint venture crypto exchange Binance Thailand, which comes in collaboration with Gulf Innova, a subsidiary of Gulf Energy Development.

Inflation in India has seen many twists and turns in the past four years, but the signs of relief are getting stronger. Both retail and wholesale inflation inched up in December 2023—to 5.69% and 0.73%, respectively—but the uptick was mainly on account of base effect. Strip that off, and retail inflation would have slid to 5.2% and wholesale prices would have recorded a 0.6% deflation, back-of-the-envelope calculations show.

Mint on 29 December reported that the union government was considering a 50% duty on the export of molasses to augment supplies for meeting India's target for cleaner and more efficient ethanol-blended petrol. The government aims to achieve its E20 (20% ethanol blended petrol) target by 2025-26 from its present 12%. India is the world’s largest molasses exporter and contributes about 25% to global trade.

Department of Telecommunications has noted Vodafone Idea's failure to close a funding from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for deployment of Open-RAN and related technologies, despite assurances by the telco that it would do so four months ago. The government is the biggest shareholder in the cash-strapped carrier with a 33.1% stake. Payment moratorium ends in FY26 «Vi had reported verbally that it is in discussions with US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for funding Open-RAN & related technologies, but no progress has been reported even after lapse of four months,» the DoT said in a January 4 confidential report on Vi.

Nirmala Sitharaman will rise in the Lok Sabha on February 1 to present the Union Budget 2024-25. It will be an interim Budget as the elections for the Lok Sabha are due early next year. The full Budget for FY25 will be presented after the formation of the new government following the general elections.

free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the UK are either finalised or at an advanced stage of talks, a government official said on Monday. Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce L Satya Srinivas said that the 14th round of negotiations between the officials of the two countries is underway here. «The majority of the chapters are either closed or at an advanced stage of negotiation.

The Centre is planning to build a common information technology (IT) backbone linking various stakeholders of the corporate turnaround ecosystem to improve the efficacy of debt resolution, two people aware of the matter said. The entities to be connected include the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), credit information providers, lenders, distressed businesses ending up in tribunals, and insolvency professionals. National E-Governance Services Ltd (NeSL), India’s first agency registered under IBBI to provide legal evidence on debt to creditors and tribunals, will also be part of this IT network.

Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested Congress leader and former Punjab forest minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot under the anti-money laundering law in an investigation linked to an alleged forest scam in the state, official sources said. The agency took the 64-year-old politician into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in Jalandhar. The ED had raided the premises of Dharamsot, another forest minister of the state Sangat Singh Giljian, some forest department officials and others in November last year. The investigation pertains to charges of «bribery» in the state forest department against the issuance of permits for tree felling and for transfer/posting in the department, among other allegations. Dharamsot has been a five-time MLA and was also arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau last year in a case linked to alleged possession of disproportionate assets. He has represented the Nabha assembly seat while Giljian has been an MLA from the Urmar seat in Hoshiarpur district. The money laundering case, filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, stems from an FIR of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau into alleged irregularities in the forest department and allegations of taking bribes by the ministers and officers concerned for issuing permits for felling of Khair trees, transfer/posting in the department, issuance of NOC from the department and purchase of tree guards.

Someday soon, someone will be walking down the street proudly carrying a ludicrously capacious bag, bought for a ludicrously capacious price

Self-driving cars still have a long road ahead of them Delhi has always been at the top in terms of most private vehicles and in 2023, the number of private vehicles dropped after the Delhi Transport Department's order which directed the owners of old vehicles to scrap and reregister them. Supreme Court banned diesel vehicles in Delhi that are aged more than 10 years and petrol vehicles older than 15 years to combat air pollution.

Kaushal Raj Sharma, the director of the religious affairs department and divisional commissioner in Varanasi, said that 3 lakh laddoos are being readied for distribution through the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. 1.5 lakh laddoos will be distributed among devotees at Kashi Vishwanath Dham on January 22 while affiliated temples in Sarnath and Chandauli are slated to receive 20,000 laddoos each for distribution among their visitors, he said. Sharma mentioned that a list of temples interested in participating in the laddoo distribution is currently being compiled, and approximately 100 temples are expected to distribute 1,100 laddoos each.

Apple is offering rare discounts on its iPhones in China, cutting retail prices by as much as 500 yuan ($70) amid growing competitive pressure in the world's biggest smartphone market. The U.S. tech giant cut prices of some iPhones by 5%, its Chinese website showed on Monday. The time-limited promotion, branded as a Lunar New Year event, will last from Jan. 18 through Jan. 21 in a lead-up to the holiday in mid-February.