Civil Service Bytes

Affirming that the economy is right on track, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for 2016-17. Citing that the CPI inflation has come down to 5.4% from 9 plus, he said it is huge relief for the public. Tax Infrastructure and agriculture cess to be levied. Excise duty raised from 10 to 15 per cent on tobacco products other than beedis 1 per cent service charge on purchase of luxury cars over Rs. 10 lakh and in-cash purchase of goods and services over Rs. 2 lakh. SUVs, Luxury cars to be more expensive. 4% high capacity tax for SUVs. Companies with revenue less than Rs 5 crore to be taxed at 29% plus surcharge Limited tax compliance window from Jun 1 - Sep 30 for declaring undisclosed income at 45% incl. surcharge and penalties Excise 1 per cent imposed on articles of jewellery, excluding silver. 0.5 per cent Krishi Kalyan Cess to be levied on all services. Pollution cess of 1 per cent on small petrol, LPG and CNG cars; 2.5 per cent on diesel cars of cer...

Disinvestment Receipts The term refers to the money raised by the Government through disinvestment, or the sale of its equity stake in companies it owns. Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act The Act is an attempt to make the Government adhere to a phased plan to reduce fiscal deficit, which denotes an excess of expenditure over revenue. Dividend Distribution Tax This is a tax levied on companies that pay out dividends to its shareholders, i.e. share a portion of earnings with them. Venture Capital Funds These are funds that invest in startups, a financially riskier proposition than investing in established companies. Securities Transaction Tax It is a tax on all transactions done over the stock exchanges involving securities such as shares, derivatives, and equity-linked mutual funds. Wholesale Price Index (WPI) It is a measure of inflation, or price change, arrived at after regularly measuring the prices of a slew of wholesale goods. Consumer Price...

The cabinet’s approval of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) on Wednesday is, on the face of it, a relatively innocuous development. As WTO deals go, this is low-hanging fruit. The agreement is to reduce administrative barriers at ports and customs, reducing transactional costs of international trade and consequently—according to various studies—increasing global gross domestic product by $1 trillion. This has found greater consensus between developed and developing economies than most WTO issues manage. But India has played spoiler—until now. The link between the TFA and India’s food security that led to New Delhi using the former as a bargaining chip may have been broken, but the underlying issue remains. India’s stance across the previous and current administrations has been incoherent. The core issue is India’s public stockholding programme for food security. The price support mechanism this entails falls into the WTO’s so-called ‘amber’ box ...

The recent turmoil in the financial markets has not dampened Chinese government’s enthusiasm for building infrastructure projects across Asia. For instance, after international sanctions were removed recently, Chinese President Xi Jinping was the first head of the state to visit Iran, where he promised to build a high-speed train network and termed Iran as a ‘natural partner’ in implementing the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative. The OBOR is an ambitious connectivity project, which seeks to leverage Chinese core-competency in infrastructure-building and also address the problem of domestic industrial overcapacity in sectors such as steel and cement. The OBOR has both continental and maritime components. The maritime route will connect important ports in China, the South China Sea, and the Indian Ocean, with the European ports in the Mediterranean Sea. The continental route will link-up western China with Central Asia and Europe. An arm of the continental route, the China-Pakista...

The world’s richest 62 people now own as much wealth as half of the world’s population, according to a report by the  Charity Oxfam. Report stated: Super-rich individuals saw an increase of 44 percent since 2010, taking their cumulative wealth to 1.76 trillion US Dollar equivalent to the total owned by 3.5 billion of the world’s poorest people. Tax havens were helping corporations and individuals stash away about 7.6 trillion USD, depriving governments of 190 billion USD in tax revenue every year. The report calls for urgent action to deal with a trend showing that 1% of people own more wealth than the other 99% combined. The wealth of the poorest 50% dropped by 41% between 2010 and 2015, despite an increase in the global population of 400m. In the same period, the wealth of the richest 62 people increased by $500bn (£350bn) to $1.76tn. In 2010, the 388 richest people owned the same wealth as the poorest 50%. This dropped to 80 in 2014 before falling again in ...

A smart city is not a destination, but a journey of several smart steps which will help change the way we live: There are five essential components to the success of this mission:  visionary leadership; global open standards; public private partnership; smart regulation (concerted efforts to identify regulations which do not lend themselves to a smart city and proactively address them—like stamping of boarding passes and hand baggage tags at airport security); and establishing new ecosystems to deliver these projects. While we have witnessed visionary leadership at the top, percolating that vision down to the last urban local body continues to be an area of concern. In the first stage of the competition, the process of citizen consultation was employed very well by most local governments. This is a healthy sign for participative governance.  The mission will be a true success when it becomes more of a demand-driven, citizen-led phenomenon. And now is the time fo...

The Department of Commerce’s DAVA (Drug Authentication and Verification Application) project has won the 2015 eASIA Award under Trade Facilitation category as announced by Asia Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (AFACT) in Tehran, Iran.   DAVA project launched on June 29, 2015 created an integrated platform for implementation of the Track and Trace system both for exports and domestic markets of Drugs and Pharmaceuticals . It is in the pilot stage and will be subsequently made mandatory for all pharmaceutical exports from India.   The DAVA project is an initiative of Government of India which aims to cover all the drugs manufactured in India.  Indian Pharmaceutical industry has approximately 250 large units and more than 8,000 small and medium scale units. The project will provide simpler means to the consumer and regulatory agencies for establishing drug authentication and protect the India’s Brand image in international trade.   ...