Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 05 November 2016

:: National ::

The fourth round of meetings of the GST Council was inconclusive regarding the key issue of how to divide the authority to assess tax between the Centre and the States, although differences were narrowed down.
The next GST Council meeting has been postponed from November 9-10 to November 24-25, Mr. Jaitley said, adding that the Ministers will meet for an informal session on November 20 to discuss the tax assessment issue further.
The Finance Minister said that the preparation of the drafts of the Central GST, State GST, Inter-state GST, and Compensation Law will be completed by November 14-15.
The draft laws will then be sent to the States, which will have one week to respond with any recommendations. The Finance Minister added that the Council has narrowed down its options.
One option is to divide assessees horizontally, where those with a turnover of less than Rs. 1.5 crore a year will be assessed by the States and those with more than that will be shared by the States and the Centre.

Even as rights body Amnesty International condemned the burning of schools in the Valley, three more educational institutions were set on fire by unidentified persons.
Government decided to hold the annual examinations of Classes 10 and 12 this month itself.
“Schools should be safe spaces under all circumstances. The vicious arson attacks on schools end up denying children their right to education. This disturbing trend must stop. The government should bring to justice those responsible,” said Amnesty.
It also asked the government “to shift some of examination centres away from schools occupied by security forces.”
Since July 8, when militant commander BurhanWani was killed, 27 schools have been torched by miscreants. Militants, separatists, political parties and civil society groups have condemned these acts.

In a crackdown to curb its soaring immigration figures, United Kingdom government has announced changes to its visa policy for non-European Union nationals, which will affect a large number of Indians, especially IT professionals.
Under the new visa rules, anyone applying after November 24 under the Tier 2 intra-company transfer (ICT) category would be required to meet a higher salary threshold requirement of £30,000 from the earlier £20,800.
The ICT route is largely used by Indian IT companies in Britain and the U.K.’s Migration Advisory Committee had found earlier this year that Indian IT workers accounted for nearly 90 per cent of visas issued under this route.
The changes come just days before British Prime Minister Theresa May lands in India for her three-day visit.

Turkey wants India to start talks on a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) soon and said the ongoing political turmoil will not impact foreign investment flows.
Though there is an India-Turkey Joint Study Group report on “the feasibility and possibility of concluding a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement” (CEPA or, in other words, a FTA), no dates have been fixed for starting FTA negotiations.
Turkish companies want to make India a gateway for improving business ties in South Asia. Indian companies can use Turkey as a hub to expand operations in the European Union, the Middle East and Africa.
In FY’16, India-Turkey trade had shrunk nearly 28 per cent year-on-year to $4.91 billion of which India’s exports to Turkey were $4.14 billion (contraction of 22.7 per cent) while Turkey’s exports to India fell 47 per cent to $776 million.
However, he said while there was a standardised general incentive policy for investors, Turkey now had ‘tailor-made’ incentives for investments that help Turkey meet its economic development plans.

The Central Statistical Organisation will provide its advance estimates of GDP growth by the first week of January to facilitate the presentation of the Union Budget earlier than February 28.
The expenditure numbers are not linked to the GDP figure, so this year we are adopting the extrapolation approach and next year, the CSO has taken steps to advance the data collection so we can get it by the first week of January.
Das expressed confidence that the economy will clock higher growth this year than the 7.6 per cent GDP growth in 2015-16 on the back of improved farm sector output.
He said there was nothing “unusual” about the high fiscal deficit recorded in the first half of the year, a two-decade high of 84 per cent of Budget estimates.
Typically the fiscal deficit looks high in the first half of the year because the bulk of the revenues comes in the second half of the year, whereas expenditure is evenly paced.
In the second half, the revenue will come in and the target of 3.5 per cent of GDP will be achieved.