Ten things to know about the GST Bill
The Goods and Services Tax is one of the main items on the finance agenda of the BJP government. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that it can raise India’s GDP by one to two per cent. As the Lok Sabha takes up the GST Bill, here is your cheat sheet to the debate:
|
1 |
Officially, the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Second Amendment) Bill 2014. |
|
2 |
It was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 19, 2014 by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. |
|
3 |
The Bill seeks to amend the Constitution to introduce a goods and services tax (GST) which will subsumes various Central indirect taxes, including the Central Excise Duty, Countervailing Duty, Service Tax, etc. It also subsumes State value added tax (VAT), octroi and entry tax, luxury tax, etc. |
|
4 |
The Bill inserts a new Article in the Constitution make legislation on the taxation of goods and services a concurrent power of the Centre and the States. |
|
5 |
The Bill seeks to shift the restriction on States for taxing the sale or purchase of goods to the supply of goods or services. |
|
6 |
The Bill seeks to establish a GST Council tasked with optimising tax collection for goods and services by the State and Centre. The Council will consist of the Union Finance Minister (as Chairman), the Union Minister of State in charge of revenue or Finance, and the Minister in charge of Finance or Taxation or any other, nominated by each State government. |
|
7 |
The GST Council will be the body that decides which taxes levied by the Centre, States and local bodies will go into the GST; which goods and services will be subjected to GST; and the basis and the rates at which GST will be applied. |
|
8 |
Under the Bill, alcoholic liquor for human consumption is exempted from GST. Also, it will be up to the GST Council to decide when GST would be levied on various categories of fuel, including crude oil and petrol. |
|
9 |
The Centre will levy an additional one per cent tax on the supply of goods in the course of inter-State trade, which will go to the States for two years or till when the GST Council decides. |
|
10 |
Parliament can decide on compensating States for up to a five-year period if States incur losses by implementation of GST. |
Aadhaar shall remain optional: Supreme Court
In an interim order till a Constitution Bench decides on the issue, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court on 11th August ruled that Aadhaar should not be used for availing government welfare schemes other than PDS, food grain distribution, cooking fuel/LPG or for criminal investigation on a court’s direction.
The Court, in its interim order, said the Centre should ensure wide publicity through print and electronic media that Aadhar card was not mandatory.
No personal information of Aadhar card holders should be shared by the authorities concerned, the Court added.
Earlier in the day, the Court referred to a larger bench a batch of petitions to declare Aadhar scheme as an intrusion into privacy
Allowing the Centre’s plea, a three-judge bench comprising Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde and C. Nagappan, framed various questions, including as to whether right to privacy is a fundamental right, to be decided by the larger Constitution Bench.
DD clears biopic on Deendayal Upadhyaya
Prime Minister Narendra Modi rarely makes a speech without referring to “yug purush” Deendayal Upadhyaya. Early this year, the Publications Division of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry published books on him, along with other political leaders, ahead of the Book Fair.
Nearly Rs. 1,500 crore has been set aside for the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gramin Kaushal Yojana — targeted at providing job opportunities for rural youth.
A determined effort is being taken to make Deendayal Upadhyaya, a stalwart of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, precursor of the BJP, an influential part of the mainstream political discourse. And to strengthen this campaign by those who regard Deendayal Upadhyaya as the 20th century’s most original thinker, Doordarshan recently cleared a proposal for a biopic, to mark the centenary celebrations next year.
Ram turns Deen Dayal Upadhyaya
The decision to clear the bio-epic on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya for telecast, with other serials, was taken by a committee established by the Prasar Bharati Corporation with the nod of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in April-May this year.
Arun Govil, better known for playing Ram in the epic Ramayan telecast on Doordarshan in the mid-80s, has been commissioned to work on it.
Google becomes Alphabet after restructuring
Google Inc announced a new operating structure 10th August, creating a holding company called Alphabet to encompass the search engine unit and other subsidiaries.
Alphabet Inc will replace Google as the publicly-traded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights.
"This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google," Larry Page said in a blogpost.
The unusual structure, announced after the close of stock market trading, leaves Page in charge of the company as CEO. Fellow co-founder Sergey Brin will become president of Alphabet, and Eric Schmidt will be executive chairman.
Sundar Pichai will be the CEO of Google Inc, while current Google Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat will become CFO of Alphabet. Google's current directors will become directors of Alphabet.
Page said "Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies, the largest of which is, of course, Google."
The company said the new arrangement will take effect "later this year."
Satya Nadella, Google’s Executive Chairman wish Sundar Pichai on becoming CEO of Google
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and other technology executives today congratulated India-born Sundar Pichai on his elevation as the new CEO of Google.
Pichai, 43, was named CEO of a newly organised Google, becoming only the third chief executive of the company after Schmidt and cofounder Larry Page.
Join The Discussion