I&B Ministry
MoF assures that GST will be a game changer for M&E and subsume service tax, entertainment tax & VAT
NEW DELHI: In a major relief to the media and entertainment industry, two senior officials of the Finance Ministry assured the captains of the sector that VAT, service tax and entertainment tax would be subsumed in the proposed Goods and Services Tax.
Terming GST as a game changer, Revenue Special Secretary Rashmi Verma said the rate was being worked out but she reiterated that it would be one and uniform for the entire country.
Member Service Tax and GST V S Krishnan added that Infosys had been given the task of creating a special portal for GST collections and the progress was good.
He said that three processes under way were in the public domain and the stakeholders and citizens could react. As all these were drafts, changes could still be made.
These were the rate of taxation, the law relating to GST, and the technology. The fourth relating to returns would be put in the public domain today itself. Technology was being taken care of by Infosys.
He added that after GST came and the government got time to review its progress, it could be improved over time.
They were responding to remarks made by some industry leaders on the second and final day of the two-day Big Picture summit organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry.
Sector representatives included Farokh Balsara of Ernst and Young, Film Federation of India Vice President Ravi Kottarakara, Hinduja Ventures whole time Director Ashok Mansukhani and Zee Network’s legal expert Avnindra Mohan. A P Parigi, advisor to the Chairman of Network 18 moderated the session.
Verma added that the problem of share of centre and states would be sorted out by the Ministry and need not worry the M and E industry which will just have to pay a single tax.
There will be slabs, but that would be restricted to just two – higher and lower, she added.
She said bringing the Centre and 29 states on one table had been difficult but most problems had been ironed out.
The work of the portion of the state was being worked out but the citizens need have no doubt that he will have to pay just one tax. For the citizen, the apportioning was only of academic interest.
She said there may be some tax levied by some local bodies in some states, but this would be between half per cent to two per cent. While ways were also being found to sort out this problem, it was clear that this would only relate to the manufacturing industry.
She also clarified that the GST would apply both to services and goods.
The M and E industry would benefit as the multiplicity of taxation would vanish.
The entire information will be out on a GST portal by the third week of November, she said. The transitional problems were being worked out, she added.
Answering a point made by one of the earlier speakers who asked whether the M & E sector was being treated at par with sinful industries, she said this was not so. The only sinful industries for the Government were cigarettes and alcohol.
Parigi suggested creation of a separate secretariat with representatives of industry and bodies like the CII.
I&B Ministry
Government sets up AI governance group to steer policy
AIGEG to align ministries, assess jobs impact, guide AI deployment.
MUMBAI: If artificial intelligence is the engine, the government is now building the dashboard and making sure everyone reads from the same screen. The Centre has constituted a new inter-ministerial body to coordinate India’s approach to AI, formalising a key recommendation from its governance framework and the Economic Survey. The AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG), set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will act as the central platform to align AI-related policy across ministries, regulators and departments, an attempt to bring coherence to what has so far been a fragmented and fast-evolving landscape.
The group will be chaired by union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with minister of state Jitin Prasada as vice chairperson. Its composition reflects both technological and economic priorities, bringing together the principal scientific adviser, the chief economic adviser, and the CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside key secretaries from telecommunications, economic affairs and science and technology. A representative from the National Security Council Secretariat is also part of the group, while the MeitY secretary will serve as member convenor.
At its core, AIGEG is designed to do two things: coordinate and anticipate. On the policy front, it will review existing regulatory mechanisms, issue guidance across sectors and ensure companies remain compliant with evolving legal frameworks. Beyond that, it will oversee national initiatives on AI governance, with a focus on enabling responsible innovation rather than merely regulating it.
The economic dimension is equally central. The group has been tasked with assessing how AI-driven automation could reshape jobs identifying which roles are most at risk, where those impacts may be geographically concentrated, and whether technology will augment or replace human labour. Based on these assessments, it will develop mitigation strategies and transition plans, signalling a more proactive stance on workforce disruption.
In parallel, AIGEG will work with industry stakeholders to chart a long-term roadmap for AI adoption, categorising use cases into “deploy”, “pilot” or “defer” buckets depending on readiness factors such as data availability, skill levels and regulatory clarity. The aim is to move from broad ambition to structured execution deciding not just what can be built, but what should be built now.
The group will function as the apex layer in India’s AI governance architecture, supported by a Technology and Policy Expert Committee that will track global developments, emerging risks and regulatory priorities. Together, the two bodies are expected to shape both the pace and direction of AI adoption in the country.
In a landscape where technology often outruns policy, the creation of AIGEG signals an attempt to close that gap ensuring that India’s AI journey is not just rapid, but also coordinated, accountable and economically grounded.
