The Gist of Press Information Bureau (PIB): February 2017

The Gist of Press Information Bureau: February 2017

Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016

Evasion of taxes deprives the nation of critical resources which could enable the Government to undertake anti-poverty and development programmes. It also puts a disproportionate burden on the honest taxpayers who have to bear the brunt of higher taxes to make up for the revenue leakage. As a step forward to curb black money, bank notes of existing series of denomination of the value of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 [Specified Bank Notes(SBN)] have been recently withdrawn the Reserve Bank of India.

Concerns have been raised that some of the existing provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act) can possibly be used for concealing black money. The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016 ('the Bill') has been introduced in the Parliament to amend the provisions of the Act to ensure that defaulting assessees are subjected to tax at a higher rate and stringent penalty provision.

Further, in the wake of declaring specified bank notes "as not legal tender", there have been suggestions from experts that instead of allowing people to find illegal ways of converting their black money into black again, the Government should give them an opportunity to pay taxes with heavy penalty and allow them to come clean so that not only the Government gets additional revenue for undertaking activities for the welfare of the poor but also the remaining part of the declared income legitimately comes into the formal economy.

In this backdrop, an alternative Scheme namely, 'Taxation and Investment Regime for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016' (PMGKY) has been proposed in the Bill. The declarant under this regime shall be required to pay tax @ 30% of the undisclosed income, and penalty @10% of the undisclosed income. Further, a surcharge to be called 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Cess' @33% of tax is also proposed to be levied. In addition to tax, surcharge and penalty (totaling to approximately 50%), the declarant shall have to deposit 25% of undisclosed income in a Deposit Scheme to be notified by the RBI under the 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme, 2016'. This amount is proposed to be utilised for the schemes of irrigation, housing, toilets, infrastructure, primary education, primary health, livelihood, etc., so that there is justice and equality.

Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention for Protection of Ozone Layer

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its ex-post facto approval to the negotiating position adopted by the Government of India at the recent Meeting of Parties (MoP) to the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention for Protection of Ozone Layer that took place during 6-14 October, 2016, in Kigali, Rwanda.

The negotiations at Kigali were aimed at including Hydrofluoro Carbons (HFCs) in the list of chemicals under the Montreal Protocol with a view to regulate their production and consumption and phase them down over a period of time with financial assistance from the Multilateral Fund created under the Montreal Protocol. HFCs are not ozone depleting but global warming substance and if controlled, can contribute substantially to limiting the global temperature and advance actions for addressing climate change.

The Cabinet also approved the proposal of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to argue for adoption of an appropriate baseline years from out of 3 options within a range of 2024 to 2030 with freeze in a subsequent year. The Cabinet approved the flexibility of using any of the options within this range with a combination of the features of the proposed options in consultation with the Government. During negotiations held at Kigali India successfully negotiated the baseline years and freeze years which will allow sufficient room for the growth of the concerned sectors using refrigerants being manufactured domestically thus ensuring unhindered growth with least additional cost and maximum climate benefits.

It was agreed at Kigali that there would be two set of baselines or peak years for developing countries and India will have baseline years of 2024, 2025, 2026. This decision gives additional HCFC allowance of 65% that will be added to the Indian baseline consumption and production. The freeze year for India will be 2028, with a condition that there will be a technology review in 2024/2025 and, if the growth in the sectors using refrigerants is above certain agreed threshold, India can defer its freeze up to 2030. On the other hand, developed countries will reduce production and consumption of HFCs by 70% in 2029. As per the decisions taken in Kigali, India will complete its phase down in 4 steps from 2032 onwards with cumulative reduction of 10% in 2032, 20% in 2037, 30% in 2042 and 85% in 2047.

The Kigali amendments to the Montreal Protocol will also, for the first time, incentivise improvement in energy efficiency in case of use of new refrigerant and technology. Funding for R&D and servicing sector in developing countries has also been included in the agreed solutions on finance.

Rehabilitation Package for Displaced Families from Pakistan occupied Jammu &Kashmir

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has approved Central Assistance of Rs. 2000 crore for 36,384 displaced families from Pakistan occupied areas of Jammu & Kashmir (POJK) and Chhamb following an announcement of Prime Minister's Development Package for Jammu & Kashmir-2015 in November, 2015 As per the package, Rs. 5.5 lakh cash benefit per family will be disbursed to the displaced families to enable them to earn an income and subsist their livelihood. The amount will be released to the State Government of J&K to be disbursed to eligible families through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

In the aftermath of partition of the country in 1947, thousands of families from Pakistan occupied areas of Jammu & Kashmir migrated to the State of Jammu & Kashmir. Subsequently, during Indo-Pak Wars of 1965 and 1971, a large number of families were displaced from Chhamb Niabat area of Jammu & Kashmir. Series of relief and rehabilitation packages have been extended by the Government of India/State Government of J&K from time to time to mitigate the hardship of displaced persons from PoJK and Chhamb and to rehabilitate them.

Yoga in the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

Yoga, India's one of the ancient practices has now been inscribed as an element in the UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of humanity during the 11th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During this session, India's proposal for inscribing Yoga as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was unanimously supported by all the 24 members of the Intergovernmental Committee.

Yoga has become the 13th intangible cultural heritage that has been listed from India so far with UNESCO. Previous ones includes the Chhau dance( Inscribed in 2010), the Buddhist chanting of Ladakh ( inscribed in 2012), Sankirtana -the ritual singing, drumming, and dancing of Manipur( inscribed in 2013), the traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab(inscribed in 2014) and Ramlila- the traditional performance of the Ramayana ( inscribed in 2008).

Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has played a key role in having the United Nation declare June 21st as the International Yoga Day in 2014. Government of India has been taking forward the momentum created by celebration of International Yoga Day in 2015 and 2016 with greater and more active participation of youth & other stakeholders of the community. The government has continuously been promoting Yoga as a human treasure and a key to noble health.

LED Retail Prices come down to Rs. 65 under UJALA Scheme

Achieving efficient implementation of the Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) Scheme, the aggregation of demand and bulk procurement by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has resulted in huge savings for the consumers across the country. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
Giving the details, the Minister informed that the e-procurement of LED bulbs through a transparent and competitive bidding process has resulted in reduction of approximately 88% in procurement prices of LED bulbs from Rs.310 in February, 2014 to Rs.38 in August 2016, the retail price being reduced from Rs.550 to Rs.65, which is passed on to the consumers.

As on 21.11.2016, 17.90 Crore LED bulbs have been distributed to households across the country, that resulted in avoided capacity generation of 4,656 MW and a saving of 23.25 billion KWh per year, Shri Goyal further added.

Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, launched the National LED programme on 5th January, 2015, which is being implemented by EESL, a joint venture company of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under Ministry of Power.

The Minister informed about the details of the programme and said that EESL aggregates demand across the country and procures LED bulbs for further distribution to domestic consumers at lower rates compared to retail market. EESL has developed an innovative business model in which the entire investment in these programmes is made by it and is paid back over a time from energy savings. This obviates a need for any government funding for this programme. There is no element of subsidy in the scheme.

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