The government plans to phase in cash transfers of food and kerosene subsidies from September, saving 10-15 per cent of the $21 billion in annual outlays on the benefits by eliminating fraud, a senior finance ministry official said on Thursday (03 July). Three so-called union territories, directly administered by the central government, would become a testbed for the measures, said Peeyush Kumar, the senior finance ministry official in charge of the cash transfer scheme. Under the programme, each family will get a monthly subsidy of about Rs 500-700 ($19), which would be linked to a state-set procurement price of grains. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has completed one year in power, wants to improve targeting of food and fuel subsidies to reach the poor - monetising benefits previously paid in kind that often went to waste or were stolen. He launched a 'Digital India' drive on Wednesday to offer public services by linking bank accounts, identity cards and mobile phones in a national database. Indian plans to reduce its subsidy bill by about 10 per cent to $38.4 billion this fiscal year, about 14 per cent of federal spending on programmes offering subsidised food, fertiliser and fuel, helped by reforms and lower crude oil prices. The Union government has set a deadline of December for states to computerise all data on households now receiving subsidised food and fuel - to remove 'ghost', or fake, beneficiaries, Kumar told a seminar on benefit reforms. Crisil, the Indian arm of Standard & Poor's, estimates that the federal subsidy bill could fall by 20 per cent, or Rs 25,000 crore ($3.94 billion) a year, if the direct benefit transfer scheme is fully implemented. Direct payments for cooking gas into people's bank accounts, launched earlier this year, have reduced sales of subsidised fuel by about one-fourth, mainly by eliminating ghost beneficiaries, said finance ministry adviser Arvind Subramanian. (Reuters)
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The black money law that provides for stringent penalties and jail term for failing to disclose overseas income has been operationalised from July 1 this year, instead of April 2016, the Finance Ministry said. The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, as passed by Parliament, was to come into effect from April 1, 2016, after providing for a short 'compliance window' to foreign asset holders to come clean. When asked whether the black money law has come into force, a top revenue department official confirmed. "Yes, with effect from July 1". The changes were being made to remove the difficulties with regard to dates for implementation of the provisions of the new black money law, a Finance Ministry Order said. In the order, the Ministry said, the provisions of the Act were intended for application in the Assessment Year 2016-17. But for this to happen the Act has to come into effect from current fiscal and the necessary change have now been made as per the powers given by the law passed by Parliament in May this year. The Order came along side the notification of a 90-day compliance window lasting till September 30 for holders of unaccounted foreign income and assets to declare them. After declaring assets they will have time till December 31 to pay non-punitive tax and penalty of 30 per cent each to escape stringent punishment including jail term. The Finance Ministry Order said "for the words, figures and letters 'the 1st day of April, 2016,' the words, figures and letters 'the 1st day of July 2015' shall be substituted (in Section 1 (3) of the Act)". In the Act, which received Presidential assent on May 26, Section 1 (3) had said "...it (Act) shall come into force from 1st day of April, 2016". Once the compliance window closes, anyone found having undeclared overseas wealth would be required to pay 30 per cent tax, 90 per cent penalty and face criminal prosecution. The revenue department will soon come out with an Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to guide the assesses with regard to declaration of undisclosed assets, payment of tax and penalty.(PTI)
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Government has allocated Rs 200 crore for three years to set up an online national agriculture market by integrating 585 wholesale markets across India -- a move that would help farmers realise better prices. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had on Wednesday (01 July) approved a Central Sector Scheme for Promotion of National Agricultural Market through Agri-Tech Infrastructure Fund. "An amount of Rs 200 crore has been earmarked for the scheme from 2015-16 to 2017-18," an official statement said. The Department of Agriculture will set it up by creation of a common electronic platform deployable in selected regulated markets across the country. "Now there will be one licence for entire state, there will be single point levy. There will be electronic auctions for price discovery. The impact will be that the entire state will become a market and the fragmented markets within the states would be abolished," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters. Under the scheme, 585 selected regulated markets would be covered. The plan is to cover 250 mandis in current fiscal, 200 mandis in 2016-17 and 135 mandis in 2017-18. "Seamless transfer of agriculture commodities within the state can take place. The market size for farmers would increase as he won't be limited to a captive market," Jaitley said. The Rs 200 crore allocations includes provision for supplying software free of cost by agriculture department to the states and UTs and for cost of related hardware/ infrastructure to be subsidised by the Centre up to Rs 30 lakh per Mandi (other than for private mandis). Agriculture Secretary Siraj Hussain informed that Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Gujarat have already agreed to join the Scheme, while Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are "very keen" to particuipate. Besides, the Centre is also in discussions with Uttar Pradesh. Unifying the markets both at state and the national level would provide better price to farmers, improve supply chain, reduce wastages and create a unified national market through provision of the common e-platform, the statement said. (PTI)
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With an eye on improving farm productivity, the government will spend Rs 50,000 crore over the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). "It has been decided that in 5 years, Rs 50,000 crore from the central Budget would be utilised for the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. States' share will be over and above this," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while communicating the Cabinet decision. He further said: "This can also be utilised to help the material component in MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)." The decision was taken at the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday. For the current fiscal, he said the allocation is Rs 5,300 crore. The spending this year is expected to bring an additional 6 lakh hectares under irrigation while 5 lakh hectares will benefit from drip irrigation. That apart, 1,300 watershed projects have been marked for completion. Currently, 142 million hectares are used for cultivation, of which only 45 per cent farm land is under irrigation. "The major objective of the PMKSY is to achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level, expand cultivable area under assured irrigation (har khet ko pani), improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage of water, enhance adoption of precision-irrigation and other water-saving technologies (more crop per drop)," he said. (PTI)
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The government on Wednesday gave three months time till September 30 for people to declare their undisclosed foreign income and assets to escape prosecution under the new black money law, while tax and penalty on such funds can be paid till December 31. Those availing the one-time "compliance window" would be required to pay a tax of 30 per cent and a penalty of a similar amount. Under the new black money law, which has been passed by Parliament and would come into force from April 1, 2016, the penalty would be much higher at 90 per cent, in addition to a 30 per cent tax on undisclosed foreign assets, while such persons would also face criminal prosecution with a jail term of up to ten years. The Finance Ministry said in a statement that it has notified the three-month compliance window under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015. Those making the disclosure during this period would have further three-months time till December 31 to pay the taxes and the penalty on their foreign income and assets. "The Central Government has notified the September 30, 2015, as the date on or before which a person may make a declaration in respect of an undisclosed asset located outside India under the compliance provisions" of this Act. "The last date by which a person must pay the tax and penalty in respect of the undisclosed foreign assets so declared shall be the December 31, 2015," it added. The new law was passed by Parliament in May and was notified on May 26, 2015 following the President's assent. "The Act provides for separate taxation of undisclosed foreign income and assets. Stringent penalties and prosecution, including rigorous imprisonment up to 10 years and penalty equal to three times of the tax have been prescribed for violation," the statement added. (PTI)
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To curb the rise in onion prices, government on Wednesday (01 July) extended by one year the ban on hoarding the kitchen staple beyond the prescribed limit. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The validity of the order that empowers states to impose stock limits on traders for holding onion and ban hoarding beyond the set limit, expires tomorrow - July 2. "The CCEA today approved the stock holding limit order on onion by another year. This will enable state governments take effective de-hoarding measures under the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955," according to sources. The order has been extended as onion prices in both wholesale and retail markets have started increasing due to sluggish supply of good quality onion as the crop is getting damaged in storage in major growing states. High storage losses are likely to reduce availability of onions in the market and put pressure on prices till the arrival of new kharif crop from mid-September. To prevent spike in onion prices in the coming days due to supply shortage, the government has already increased the minimum export price of the commodity to USD 425 per tonne and is also planning to import some quantities of onions to boost domestic availability. Last year, both onions and potatoes were brought under the purview of the ECA and state governments got powers to impose upper limit for holding the stock of these two items by traders and ban hoarding beyond the set ceiling. Other commodities that come under the ambit of stock holding limits order are pulses, edible oils, oilseeds, rice and paddy. India's onion production is estimated to have declined to 189.23 lakh tonnes in the 2014-15 crop year (July-June), as against 194 lakh tonnes in the previous year, as per government data.(PTI)
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India is reinvigorating an $18 billion campaign to provide fast internet connections for all, with a "digital week" aimed at popularising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign promise to connect 250,000 villages in India by 2019. The government's tech push, which plans to provide electronic governance and universal phone connectivity across the country, aims to bridge India's digital divide, bringing in large investments in technology manufacturing. But apart from a handful of headline-grabbing initiatives - free wifi at the Taj Mahal, for example - the push to connect India and drive a national fibre optic network, first approved by the last government in 2011, has made slow progress. "Now we are at a place where we can take off," said a spokesman for Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. "The idea is to bridge the gap between haves and have-nots of services and deliverables." The digital week, being launched later on Wednesday, will involve citizen awareness programmes. But officials say a plan will also be announced for "billions of dollars" of investment, most likely in manufacturing - critical for a government which badly needs to create more jobs, at a faster rate. The plan aims to stop net imports of technology and electronics by 2020, while creating over 100 million jobs. India's first cyber premier, Modi has used social media and particularly Twitter, where he has 13 million followers, to style himself as a leader in touch with technology. With a growing economy and falling handset prices, India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, and Modi is looking to harness India's potential for social development in fields like education and health. But the challenge is great. India's average Internet speed was ranked 115th globally in the first quarter of the year, among countries studied by services provider Akamai Technologies. India had just a little over 100 million broadband subscribers at the end of April, out of a population of close to 1.3 billion, according to the sector regulator, which considers Internet connections with minimum download speeds of 512 kbps. A telecom ministry panel, by comparison, said in March it wants the digital push to establish affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps "for all households" by 2017.
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When it comes to social media, Modi has displayed an undeniable suaveness, writes Simar Singh Twitter feeds, Whatsapp chats and Facebook timelines have been flooded with #SelfieWithDaughter after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Sunday "Mann Ki Baat" radio broadcast supported a Haryana village's efforts to promote gender equality. The Bibipur village held a contest asking people to click selfies with their daughters to win prizes in its efforts to encourage care of female children. A tweet from the PM encouraged fathers and daughters all over the country to do the same. A great move to push the "Beti Bachao, Beti Padao" (save girl child, educate girl child) programme, it would be difficult to think of any other strategy that could have yielded the same level of involvement that this has. When it comes to social media, Modi has displayed an undeniable suaveness. Through his tweets and other handles, there is a constant stream of communication that is coming from his end. However a "selfie" may not seem to be a very politically relevant "tool" as the entire phenomenon (despite the fact that even the slightly technologically proficient swear by their phone’s front camera) is generally treated with a dismissive air for its supposed innate frivolity. However, the prime minister has undeniably managed to transform it into an incredibly powerful tool to push his agenda and create an image of his own approachability - one of not being any different from the rest of us. What Modi’s sustained endorsement of the "selfie" has done is, infuse a certain amount of personalisation in a relationship that has been traditionally been one of detachment, that between a Prime Minister and the nation. Yet at the same time, it allows him to project and offer to the world an extremely curated version of his political self. Of course, it isn’t as if Modi has deviated from the selfie's raison d’etre of self–promotion. Modi’s love affair with selfies first came into media focus when he posted a controversial photograph of himself, holding up the BJP’s lotus along with an inked fingernail - a portrait of a self-assured politician. The selfies after his assumption of office took a more diplomatic character, as he posted selfies (and also photographs of the selfies being taken) with world leaders like Australian PM Tony Abott and Chinese premier Li Keqiang, projecting friendship between the two nations and promoting himself as an important leader of an important state. With the "selfie", Modi has managed to capitalize on the human want to share a part of themselves and assimilate a part of others through the same medium - a perfect form of non-verbal communication. To milk this very potential, the BJP set up set up booths across the capital during the Delhi elections, so that people could take selfies with the political king of selfies himself, #SelfieWithModi. Modi’s selfies could be dismissed as narcissism or a photographic proof of his megalomania. However, it is undeniable that these photographs have hit the right chord, involving people and drumming up interest in Modi’s politics.
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It will take another 5 to 7 years for foreign law forms to set up offices in India, says Monica BehuraThe government plans to allow foreign law firms to practice in the country, and on a reciprocal basis. It is a way forward to what the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in April this year a plan to make India a global arbitration and legal services hub. Although the debate on the opening up of the legal sector has been doing the rounds for quite some time now, there has been no major development in this regard in the last few years. But things have been moving in this direction by the NDA government taking conducive steps. “The inter-ministerial group (IMG) headed by the commerce secretary have been active on this since January this year. Since then we have had two meetings where we put forward our proposals and are now awaiting another meeting to take it forward,” says Lalit Bhasin, president, Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF). The Bar Council of India (BCI) and SILF had submitted their proposals to the committee that comprised 17 other ministries like the external affairs, home ministry, and finance among other ministries. The opening up of the foreign law firms in India will happen only in a phased manner. “The first phase will see the opening of legal services within India, the second phase will see practicing their own law,” says Mr. Bhasin who was a core person representing the community of Indian law firms. He added that it will take another 5 to 7 years for foreign law forms to set up offices in India. However, in the past, many international large US and UK based law firms like DLA Piper, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Beachcroft LLP amongst others worked informally with the Indian law firms through referral agreements with them. Referral agreement is “non-exclusive”, which is termed as a “best friend” relationship since either of the party can have referral agreements with other firms, and “non-financial” as there is no profit sharing involved. Therefore, no violation of the ban on foreign law firms practising in India. Through the ‘referral’ way both the law firms can have clients in either countries and explore opportunities in various business sectors.
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The launch of Digital India, one of the pet projects of the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government, is expected to be a big-ticket event. Digital India project will be launched on Wednesday (01 July) with much fanfare at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi. Digital India aims to transform the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy. The vision of Digital India is centred on three key areas -- digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance and services on demand and digital empowerment of citizens. Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Digital India Week following which several events will be held across 26 states and union territories covering 600 districts in the country. The 'Digital India Week,' is likely to see commitments of "billions of dollars" of investments by foreign and domestic firms, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said. The week long programme can help India make rapid strides in business and technology. Private participation is one of the factors that will determine its success. The programme, which has a total overlay of Rs 1 lakh crore, is meant to gave an impetus to inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, devices and manufacturing. Here are 10 key things you need to know about Digital India Week 1) The whole programme will offer five products - Digitize India Platform, Digital Locker, National Scholarship Portal, e-Hospital and e-Sign. It will have four portals/apps - Digital India Portal and Mobile App, MyGov Mobile App, Swachh Bharat Mission App and Aadhaar Mobile Update App - to help people associate themselves with the government initiatives. 2) About a third of India's 252 million internet users, and a fourth of mobile internet users, are in rural areas. But internet penetration in villages, at 8.6 per cent compared to 37.4 per cent in cities, has a long way to go, and this is the statistic Digital India hopes to change. 3) The ambitious campaign will involve multiple partners and stakeholders, including government ministries and departments, industry, school and academic institutions, gram panchayats and civic bodies. 4) A project aimed at digitising land records, birth and death certificates, mark sheets and other such utilities would also be unveiled. People will be given digital space using cloud technology to store vital government-issued e-documents and help minimise the use of physical documents. Citizens can access documents through web portal and mobile application anywhere and anytime. It also enables e-signing of documents. 5) Under the Digital India initiative, the Modi government is implementing a number of policy changes. These include open software adoption, BPO policy (to create BPOs in smaller towns), electronic development fund to promote creation of intellectual property in India. The government has targeted the Digital India initiative to reach its full impact by 2019. 6) Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has issued a directive to all major IT firms in Bangalore, instructing them to screen the event and watch Prime Minister Modi's speech without fail. As per the STPI directive, all the software companies must make arrangements for the broadcast of the Digital India Initiative programme. 7) On the infrastructure side, the Centre is building the BharatNet (formerly called the National Optical Fibre Network) that aims to connect 250,000 gram panchayats with high-speed optical fibre-based Internet access. 8) Modi will present the government's roadmap for digitising India at the event that is expected to be attended by 10,000 guests. Business leaders like Airbus India CEO Peter Gutsmiedl, RIL Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, Sterlite Technologies Chairman Anil Agarwal, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumaramangalam Birla have confirmed their participation in the programme. 9) Global heads of technology companies met Modi and assured their support to the campaign, be it Facebook, Google or Microsoft. However, at the last hour, none of the global executives from these behemoths will be attending the opening summit, citing various reasons. NR Narayana Murthy will also not attend due to prior engagements. 10) According to media reports, the University Grants Commission (UGC), in a notification dated June 25, has directed all varsities and higher education institutes across the country to observe the Digital India Week (DIW) from July 1 to July 7.
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