Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 06 February 2017

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 06 February 2017

:: National ::

V.K.Sasikala to become next CM of Tamil Nadu

• Jayalalithaa’s friend and AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala was “unanimously” elected leader of the Legislature Party at a meeting in the party headquarters, paving the way for her to become the third woman Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

• Ms. Sasikala, who has no formal political experience except for the last month-and-a-half, is expected to assume office on February 7 or 9. As per the constitutional mandate, she has to get elected to the Assembly as a legislator within six months of taking charge as Chief Minister.

• Incumbent Chief Minister and party treasurer O. Panneerselvam, who proposed her name for the legislature party leader’s post at the MLAs’ meeting, announced that he would send his resignation to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao.

• Addressing the MLAs, 62-year-old Ms. Sasikala acknowledged the loyalty of Mr. Panneerselvam to the party and claimed it was he, who first urged her to take over as the general secretary as well as the Chief Minister soon after Jayalalithaa’s death.

Govt says they want to end the practice of triple talaq

• The Centre is likely to take “a major step” to ban triple talaq after the ongoing Assembly polls, Union Law Minister said and dared the, the other parties to make their stand clear on the contentious issue.

• Insisting that the issue is not related to religion but involves respect and dignity of women, he said the government “respects faith but worship and social evil cannot coexist.”

• He said the tradition of triple talaq denies respect to women and the central government was committed to ending the “evil social practice.”

• Asserting that “every pernicious practice” cannot be part of a religion, the minister, who is a lawyer himself, said the Centre would raise the issue in the Supreme Court on three points -- justice, equality and dignity of women.

• Referring to the SP-Congress alliance in Uttar Pradesh, he said: “This is an alliance of desperation between two dynastic parties... and alliance of desperation between crime, criminals and corruption.”

• Not a single big industry had been established in Uttar Pradesh during the tenure of the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government, the BJP leader alleged, adding that funds sanctioned by the Centre for development of the state had not been used due to the feud within the Yadav family.

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:: International ::

Turkey conducted big operations against Islamic state

• Turkish police detained hundreds of suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in nationwide raids, just over a month after an attack on an Istanbul nightclub claimed by the jihadists.

• Over 400 suspects were rounded up in Turkey’s biggest police operation IS since the New Year attack on the Reina nightclub that happened just 75 minutes into 2017 that killed 39.

• Those detained included foreigners and those suspected of planning attacks in Turkey, the Dogan and Anadolu news agencies reported.

• Anadolu said at least 423 suspects had been detained. The operation around the country saw 150 suspects rounded up in Sanliurfa in the southeast and 47 in the nearby city of Gaziantep close to the Syrian border which has a known jihadist presence, Dogan said.

:: Business and Economy ::

To exemption from paying gift tax from company employees

• Company employees receiving large gifts, whether from the company itself or from somebody else, will now have to pay tax if they are valued at more than Rs. 50,000, according to changes made in this Budget.

• The Finance Bill 2017 has introduced an amendment to Section 56 of the Income Tax Act, which delineates the tax treatment meted out to ‘income from other sources.’

• The earlier provisions were that if you get more than Rs. 50,000 from anybody but your close relatives, then the amount was subject to taxation.

• According to tax experts, a large number of companies reward or compensate their senior employees with non-cash gifts, which will now be taxed.

• Section 56 outlines the kinds of gifts and from whom they can be received to still be exempt from tax (close family, on the occasion of the marriage of the individual, by way of inheritance, for example).

• But the Finance Bill 2017 seeks to widen the scope of the section, by applying it to more kinds of assessees.

• The Revenue Secretary said that there was a need to continuously update the provisions of the Income Tax Act since people were always looking for ways to bypass and evade tax.

• The Finance Bill 2017 also states that the existing exceptions contained in the section are proposed to be rationalised by including certain additional exceptions that will be added subsequently.

• Towards this, it has been decided to sunset some of the clauses in the section such as clause (vii) which deals with the precise nature of the gifts and who can give them, and clause (vii a) which delineates the rules for companies receiving such gifts.

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• The amendments made to Section 56 of the Income Tax Act will come into force from the next financial year.

Cash transactions above 3 lakhs will attract penalty

• In a bid to check generation of black money, a steep penalty awaits those accepting cash in excess of Rs. 3 lakh, beginning April 1, to settle any transaction.

• A ban on cash transaction of more than Rs. 3 lakh has been proposed in the Budget for 2017-18.

• The penalty for doing cash transaction will be steep and the receiver will have to pay an amount equivalent to the cash received.

• So, if someone buys an expensive watch for cash, it is the shopkeeper who will have to pay the tax, he said, adding that the provision is to deter people from doing large cash transactions.

• Demonetisation brought to account the stock of black money and now the government wants to stop future generation of the same.

• The government, he said, will track all large cash transactions, and also curb the avenues of conspicuous consumption through cash.

• People with large sum of unaccounted money usually spend it on holidaying or buying luxury items like cars, watches and jewellery.

• The new cash curbs will mean that such spending avenues are curtailed, disincentivising people from generating black money.

• However, the restrictions will not apply to the government, any banking company, post office savings bank or co-operative bank.

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