Business Today 28 September 2025

Since 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has cut taxes thrice to push demand, investment and growth, sacrificing revenue in the process. In September 2019, the corporation tax rate was cut to unlock manufacturing investment and capital expenditure by industry. In February 2025, personal income tax rates were rejigged to revive consumption and, by extension, private investment. With the latest cut—in goods and services tax (GST) rates—the Centre is once again hoping to spur consumption and counter the impact of punitive 50% tariffs imposed by the US. The pattern is unmistakable: twice the state has cut taxes on income—first for companies, then for individuals—in the belief that more cash-in-hand will lead to spending and, eventually, new industrial capacity, jobs and growth. The clean-up of the eight-year-old GST is the latest…

TOP WEALTH CREATORS VALUE OF PUBLIC SHAREHOLDERS’ STAKE IN HDFC BANK HAS GROWN OVER ₹2 LAKH CRORE IN A YEAR NOTE GRAPH SHOWS RISE IN VALUE OF PUBLIC STAKE IN THE PAST ONE YEAR; DATA AS ON AUGUST 29,2025. SHAREHOLDING PATTERN AS OF Q1FY26 AND Q1FY25 HAVE BEEN USED FOR CALCULATIONS SOURCE ACE EQUITY HIGH DIVIDENDS TCS PAID A DIVIDEND OF NEARLY ₹10,000 CRORE TO PUBLIC SHAREHOLDERS IN FY25 AVERAGE PUBLIC SHAREHOLDING IN FY25 HAS BEEN CONSIDERED SOURCE ACE EQUITY STELLAR RETURNS BSE, PAYTM AND LAURUS LABS SHARES HAVE RISEN THE MOST AMONG MAJORITY PUBLIC-OWNED FIRMS SHARE PRICE AS ON AUGUST 29,2025 SOURCE ACE EQUITY NOTE COMPANIES WITH OVER 50% PUBLIC SHAREHOLDING WERE CONSIDERED 25,003 THE NIFTY’S CLOSING LEVEL ON AUGUST 29, 2025, DOWN 3% YoY. NIFTY MIDCAP 150 AND…

Nirmala Sitharaman stands as a pillar in India’s economic leadership, being the country’s first Union Finance Minister to have presented eight consecutive Budgets. Her stewardship has been marked by resilience, vision, and transformative policy-making in the face of unprecedented challenges, including to the Covid-19 pandemic. Soon after the GST (goods and services tax) Council meeting, the finance minister attended an India Today Group multi-city townhall on the GST reforms. Edited excerpts of the interaction moderated by Sweta Singh and Marya Shakil: SINGH: Is GST finally a good and simple tax? A: Absolutely, it is good and it is simple, no doubt. Because before GST came, every state had its own laws—excise duty, value-added tax (VAT), some state-level cesses, some local taxes. All such taxes were brought together to form the GST.…

CONSUMERS, ESPECIALLY THE middle class and salaried, have rarely had it so good. For long, they have complained of rising inflation and high taxes and equated monthly instalments (EMIs) eating into their disposable incomes and sought relief from the government. This was mirrored in sluggish growth in consumption demand, the biggest driver of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), over the last few years. Over the past six months, the government has made a concerted effort to turn things around. It began with the FY26 Union Budget, which announced income tax cuts for individuals, followed by 100 basis points of repo rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) Monetary Policy Committee, making loans cheaper. It cut rates by 25 basis points each on February 7 and April 9 this year,…

INDIA WAS FALLING in the pecking order of investment destinations because of the complexities in the goods and services tax (GST) laws, says Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). He tells BT the GST reforms will reduce litigation and provide a stable and transparent tax regime. Edited excerpts: How will the government ensure that the GST rate cuts are passed on to consumers? We are keeping a watch on price trends, and if we find that industry is not passing on the benefits, we will take it up with the industry bodies. Several industry bodies are also raising the issue of inverted duty structure, which still continues… Wherever there is inverted duty structure or there is accumulation of credit due to that,…

WELCOMING THE RATE cuts in the goods and services tax (GST), Rajiv Kumar, former Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog and Chairman of not-forprofit policy think tank Pahlé India Foundation, says it can have a multiplier effect on growth and lead to higher private investment and higher growth of bank credit. However, it may only marginally offset the tariffs imposed by the US on Indian exports, he tells BT, underlining the need for structural reforms to make India more export oriented. Edited excerpts: Do you think the GST rate cuts will boost domestic demand and consumption? Yes, it will certainly boost consumption, especially by the middle class, in items like appliances where the rate has been reduced. This will lower the price and boost demand. Also, the reduction of GST to zero…