State of the EHS Nation- Exclusive results from ISHN’s 28^th annual White Paper Reader Survey.

The Chicago Transit Board today approved the Chicago Transit Authority’s $2.16 billion operating budget for 2025, a strategic plan designed to maintain current fares, enhance bus and rail services beyond pre-pandemic levels and support continued investments in infrastructure and technology. The budget aims to further elevate the transit experience by prioritizing investments that address what’s most important to our riders, including system security, accessibility, reliability and safety.

Noting this, report comes from Japan media (Sankei) via Reuters:

• Japanese government to compile a supplementary budget of about 13.5 trillion yen ($87 billion)
• to fund a stimulus package to help low-income households and offset rising prices
• government would provide 30,000 yen to low-income households that are exempt from residential taxes and 20,000 yen per child for households with families

[Premium Times] Mr Jega alleged that some legislators attempted to influence budget allocations and secure contracts, undermining public officials' efforts to maintain integrity.

[New Zimbabwe] THE Harare City Council (HCC) has approved a US$548,1 million budget for the year 2025 with water and sanitation and road rehabilitation receiving the biggest shares.

The City of Edmonton is falling short of its greenhouse gas emissions targets, two years after the municipality introduced its first carbon budget. 

The Ottawa Police Services Board tabled a net operating budget of $388.7 million Wednesday morning, up $16.3 million from 2024. 

Residents are set to pay more for a variety of city services next year if Ottawa's 2025 draft operating budget, tabled Wednesday, is adopted.

Ottawa city staff have drawn up a budget that would hike taxes and transit fares to patch over a gaping transit deficit.

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, on Wednesday, presented a proposed budget estimate of N678,086,767,322.18 to the state House of Assembly for legislative consideration and approval. Makinde, while presenting the budget, tagged, “Budget of Economic Stabilisation,” said it was 35 per cent higher compared to the 2024 budget. He said, “Out of the budget, capital expenditure

Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun state on Wednesday presented the total sum of Three Hundred and Ninety Billion, Twenty Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Seven Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty Naira Only (390,028,277,740.00) to the state House of Assembly as 2025 budget. Governor Adeleke who tagged the 2025 budget as “Budget of Reconstruction and Recovery” […]

The post Gov Adeleke presents N390bn budget to Osun assembly  first appeared on Business Hallmark.

• Hike in petroleum levy, imposition of GST on petroleum products not expected anytime soon
• Govt sees economic activity picking up next month due to stable rupee, lower policy rate
• Senate body points to issues in Islamic banking, fraudulent POS receipts, fake ATM notes
• 10pc levy on transport with Iran has left over 600 trucks stalled

ISLAMABAD: The Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) is reported to have expressed satisfaction over the increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio by nearly 1.5 percentage points, relieving the authorities from any push for additional tax measures through a mini-budget.

According to sources closely involved in ongoing discussions with the visiting IMF mission, the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) revenue collection target for the current fiscal year will remain unchanged at Rs12.97 trillion. Authorities have ruled out the need for additional taxes or a mini-budget, citing the IMF’s positive response.

Officials said that economic activity is expected to pick up by December in view of a stable exchange rate and a reduction in the State Bank’s policy rate, likely offsetting a tax shortfall of around Rs190 billion recorded in the first four months (July to October) of the fiscal year.

There would neither be any increase in the petroleum levy nor would general sales tax (GST) be imposed on petroleum products, the sources said after a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue presided over by PPP Senator Salim Mandviwalla.

They said the tax-to-GDP ratio had increased from 8.8pc to 10.3pc and the IMF was satisfied with this 1.5 percentage point improvement.

The sources reiterated the commitment given to the IMF that tax collection on agriculture income would start from the next fiscal year. They said that tax reforms were progressing and the draft Tax Laws Amendment Ordinance 2024 had been presented to the prime minister for approval. The ordinance contains a new family income tax return system and abolishes the concepts of non-filers and late filers.

The sources, however, hinted at tinkering with the Tajir Dost Scheme to effectively bring in traders into the tax net and said these were being discussed with the IMF mission during the ongoing meetings.

The IMF has been told that the FBR collected Rs12bn from retailers during the first quarter of 2024-25, although only 500,000 potential retailers were the target out of three million small shopkeepers.

‘Slow progress on Islamic banking’

Earlier, the Senate panel decided to call scholars of the Council of Islamic Ideology to have input on the working of Islamic banking operations in Pakistan, for which a special session would be arranged.

The central bank’s deputy governor told the panel that Riba was the main difference between conventional banking and Islamic banking.

Senator Farooq H. Naek pointed out that full implementation of Islamic banking was committed for 2027, but progress had been very slow. The SBP’s deputy governor emphasised the need for continued deliberation on Islamic banking and assured the committee that several banks were actively working towards compliance.

FBR Chairman Rashid Mehmood Langrial told the panel that FBR’s enforcement would be improved in the coming months after approval of a transformation plan, including enhancing the board’s operational expertise, organisational capacities and anti-smuggling measures.

Key discussions during the meeting included the contentious 10pc levy on transport and businesses between Pakistan and Iran, raised by Senator Manzoor Ahmad Kakar in a Senate session. The committee resolved to report to the house that the issue may be referred to the Standing Committee on Communications, noting that the levy, imposed with the federal government’s approval, did not pertain to the Federal Board of Revenue.

While FBR officials emphasised that this specific tax was not their responsibility, Senator Kakar raised concerns that Pakistani trucks were being unfairly taxed, with over 600 trucks currently parked due to the levy. The committee agreed to forward the matter to the Communications Committee for further deliberation.

The committee also discussed concerns raised by Senator Mohsin Aziz regarding the fee collected by FBR for point of sale (POS) services and its utilisation. The FBR chairman confirmed the introduction of a policy to penalise businesses that are issuing fake POS receipts, imposing fines of Rs500,000 and shutting down shops involved in such practices.

Senator Aziz highlighted weaknesses in enforcement, with some fake receipts circulating in the mar­ket, including a bill in Islamabad marked “tentative”. The FBR chairman acknowledged the issue and assured that enforcement mea­sures would be strengthened soon.

A key briefing by the SBP highlighted the performance of banking branches in smaller provinces, revealing that as of June 30, 2024, there were 3,334 banking branches operating in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, accounting for 20pc of the total nationwide branches. Additionally, 199 branches of microfinance banks were serving these regions, representing 13pc of the country’s total microfinance network.

Another pressing issue discussed was the problem of counterfeit currency dispensed from ATMs. Senator Kakar cited a case where a young man received fake Rs5,000 notes from an ATM. The CEO of a commercial bank assured the committee that security measures were being enhanced to address this issue.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2024

As the Union Budget 2025 approaches, the CBDT is reportedly focused on introducing a streamlined version of India’s income tax laws. ...

Prime Minister Michel Barnier's minority government now has a largely free hand in submitting a cleaned-up text to the Senate upper house

It has given impetus to the developmental goals outlined in the NDA’s election manifesto, say MLAs on the first day of discussion

Principal amount outstanding in 2019-20 was ₹67,171 crore, and it touched ₹1,54,797 crore in 2023-24, says the PAG report released by the I&PR Department

Shopping is a great fun if budget is not a constraint. Shopping coupons were initially introduced as promotional coupons for entertaining online shoppers by offering some extra discounts against each online purchase deals. Later on the...

The new budget has been overshadowed by the scandals with the two politicians who had to resign. I wonder what the former prime minister is thinking...

UPDATE 10/17/06:

It looks like the media is on a hunt for digging up more dirt, a.k.a "stories"...

• Finance minister admits making cash-in-hand payments - Radio Sweden.

Pacific Holidays Inc. has recently announced their latest Flash Deal, which can help anyone take their dream Japan vacation.

Salary.com, the leading SaaS provider of cloud-based compensation data and analytics, today released the results of its eighth annual U.S. and Canada National Salary Budget Survey – revealing, for the eighth year in a row, that annual salary increase budgets are expected to remain flat at 3% for the upcoming year.

Italy is an amazing country to visit, but it can be expensive – particularly if you’re travelling around from city to city trying to take in all the sites. Planning a trip to Italy on a budget isn’t as difficult as it may seem, though, and we’ve put some of our local writers onto the […]

The post Planning a trip to Italy on a budget – tips appeared first on Three Monkeys Online Magazine.

Some of Britain's biggest retailers have warned the chancellor that last month's budget will stoke inflation in the economy and spark job losses as tax hikes add nearly £2.5bn to the industry's annual tax bill.

Every business needs well managed capital to scale. If you’re able to budget properly, then there will always be enough capital for you to grow your business. Every business operates differently which means there is no universal formula to creating a viable budget for your company.

complete article

It is hard to start a profitable business in a competitive landscape. No doubt, business starts with a primary goal of making profits. Getting these profits from the phase of no client to multiple clients is a period of learning, falling, getting through and finally managing to sustain.

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One of the great things about being in business these days – whether it is having a side hustle or a retail store or an online business – is that there is just so much free help available.

To wit: Last week, I held my most popular webinar ever (almost 4,000 people registered!) for SCORE, called 7 Steps to Starting on a Shoestring. SCORE is an amazing organization; more than 10,000 business volunteers who can help and mentor you (physically or virtually) on almost any aspect of your business – marketing, sales, taxes, whatever. And, like my webinar, many of SCOREs offerings are free.

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Finding and keeping the best talent has never been easy. It became the top concern for HR professionals this past year, with more than two-thirds reporting struggles with their recruitment and retention efforts. While the reasons for those struggles run the gamut, they often relate to attracting qualified candidates (49%), retaining star employees (49%) and issues with the talent-culture fit (42%).

For small and midsize businesses (SMBs), any difficulties with finding talented hires end up wasting precious resources. Worse yet, the cost of a bad hire is equal to 30% of the hires first-year salary – without factoring in the potential losses in revenue and time associated with onboarding the wrong person for a job.

Wie können die CO2-Emissionen weltweit sinken? Darüber diskutiert gerade die UN-Klimakonferenz. Doch aktuelle Zahlen von Wissenschaftlern zeigen: Eine Trendwende bei den fossilen Emissionen ist gar nicht in Sicht. Von Simon Plentinger.

1 MILLION FREE VISITORS ON YOUR WEBSITE !!! Hurry up downloading the secrets while it's in here!

Ninjalane Podcast - In this episode Darren talks about building a budget system using AMD FM2 Trinity

SAVE up to 15% off already low rates

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present Budget 2024 today, and the real estate industry anticipates that the government will prioritize affordable and middle-class housing in the plan. To increase affordability, it has advocated for an enlargement of the … Continue reading →

This budget’s extensive measures demonstrate the government’s dedication to the real estate industry’s overall growth, which makes it a major driver of the country’s economic expansion.  The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, unveiled the 2024 Union Budget, which includes some ground-breaking … Continue reading →

Several business organisations in Northern Ireland have written to Stormont ministers calling for support with their rates bill.

The former prime minister says Labour planned to "tax, borrow and spend far beyond" what they announced.

Labour claims that public services require a £40bn increase in taxation and spending

Reeves says the government will raise £25bn from increasing employers' National Insurance contributions.

The chancellor has delivered a packed Budget, so here's how it affects you and your money.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a raft of changes to taxes and spending in the Budget.

Among the policies announced by the chancellor, some will have a direct impact on younger people.

Council leader Nick Adams-King reacts to budget and says it is 'deeply disappointing' for local growth.

Treasury secretary speaks out to reassure the markets after a rise in the cost of government borrowing.

Official data shows borrowing - the difference between spending and tax take - reached £16.6bn last month.

The new Labour government is expected to announce spending cuts and tax rises in Wednesday's Budget.

A number of major firms have warned over the impact of higher National Insurance costs.

The toy retailer says higher costs have hit expansion and led to a hiring freeze at its head office.

A council wants to develop children's homes and office spaces for service staff.

Community services could be lost in the wake of the Budget, a charity tells MPs.

Cash-strapped Slough Borough Council says it is facing an "unprecedented magnitude" of cuts.

Money saved after placing service commitments on hold has helped cut the expected deficit to £9.5m.