Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 08 March 2017

:: National ::

CAG to audit of various aspects of demonetisation

• The Comptroller and Auditor General of India will soon begin an audit of various aspects of demonetisation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 last year.

• Demonetisation per se is a banking and money supply issue and as such, outside the CAG’s audit jurisdiction.

• But the CAG is well within its rights to seek audit of fiscal impact of demonetisation, largely its impact on tax revenues. That way the issue gets linked with the public exchequer.

• There are other linkages of demonetisation with the public exchequer that will also be covered by the audit. This would be “expenditure on printing of notes, RBI dividend to the Consolidated Fund, etc.” the CAG said.

• The huge amount of data generated by banks and the Income-Tax Department in the wake of demonetisation would also be covered, he added.

• Audit can look into various risks, such as errors and omissions in identifying the potential tax evaders, failures to pursue the identified suspects, selective and arbitrary pursuance of leads and consequences thereof.

• The CAG said he had conveyed to the government his stand on the recent move of the GST Council to delete section 65 of the preliminary draft that authorised CAG to audit GST (Goods and Services Tax).

Indiato procure HIV drug from Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

• After running out of the child-friendly HIV syrup, Lopinavir, India is likely to procure the drug from a rapid supply facility routed through the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), a multilateral donor agency.

• Meanwhile, the Health Ministry released the first installment of the Rs. 6 crore payment due to Cipla Pharmaceuticals — the sole manufacturer of the drug.

• While the immediate crisis triggered by unpaid bills is being sorted, the shortage of the drug itself still looms large over India’s national HIV programme.

• India has a cohort of over 600 children who require 36,000 bottles of Lopinavir syrup annually.

• Cipla has been supplying anti retrovirals to governments and it has been upfront with our issues of payments over the past several months.

• The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is likely to give the approvals accelerated attention, given the dire shortage.

India had the highest bribery rate among the 16 Asia-Pacific countries (Register and Login to read Full News)

SC for facilitation of single persons also to embrace parenthood through surrogacy (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: International ::

UN says South Sudan faces a risk of cleansing based on ethinicity

• A United Nations report describes South Sudan as teetering on the edge of genocide and experiencing ethnic cleansing.

• The report blames security forces for violations and warns that if no one is held to account, “the viability of South Sudan ... will be stymied.”

Commonwealth is launching an initiative to help tackle domestic violence (Register and Login to read Full News)

:: Business and Economy ::

Members of EPF can now opt to move their retirement savings to NPS

• More than eight crore members of the Employees’ Provident Fund, can now opt to move their retirement savings to the National Pension System overseen by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

• The PFRDA notified the procedure for EPF members to transfer their investments to the National Pension System or NPS.

• Terming members of EPF and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (which provides medical care to organised sector workers) as “hostages, rather than clients.

• He had promised to provide employees the option to leave the EPF and opt for the NPS and had also said that employees below a certain level of monthly income could decide if they wanted to stop their own contributions to the EPF.

• In all, 24% of an employee’s salary is diverted to the EPF as a mandatory retirement saving scheme.

• Subscriber looking to transfer funds from EPF to NPS must have an active NPS Tier-I account, which can be opened either through the employer where NPS is implemented or online through eNPS on the NPS Trust website.

• The amount transferred from a recognised Provident Fund or superannuation fund to NPS would not be treated as income of the current year and hence, would not be taxable.

• While the return on EPF savings this year is expected to be 8.65%, the NPS offers multiple asset allocation options and fund managers for its members to choose from, with varying rates of returns.

• The subscriber, either a government or private sector employee, must approach the concerned PF office where their money resides, through her or his employer and request to transfer their savings to an NPS account.

FM asked ministries to gear up for speedier implementation of different schemes

• With Parliament likely to pass Union Budget 2017-18 before the beginning of the new financial year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asked ministries to gear up for speedier implementation of different schemes under their watch.

• The Finance Minister stressed on the challenges ahead for the government as a whole to ensure that expenditure on schemes and projects starts from the beginning of the financial year to leverage the early passing of the Budget.

• The Finance Minister was addressing financial advisers of different central ministries and departments at a conference in the national capital. The GFRs are rules and orders dealing with matters involving public finances.

• General Financial Rules were issued for the first time in 1947 bringing together in one place all existing orders and instructions pertaining to financial matters.

• These have subsequently been modified and issued as GFRs 1963 and GFRs 2005.

India has conveyed its concerns over the ongoing H-1B visa issue to US (Register and Login to read Full News)

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