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You are here: Home / Archives for Arun Jaitley

Kejriwal’s fresh salvo, claims CBI told to target Opposition

December 18, 2015 by Nasheman

CBI-Kejriwal

New Delhi: The confrontation between Delhi’s ruling AAP and the Centre Friday intensified with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal making fresh allegations that CBI has been asked to “target” the opposition and “finish those who don’t fall in line”.

Kejriwal’s latest salvo came a day after he demanded that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley be removed from the Cabinet for alleged corruption in Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) which he had headed for 14 years till 2013.

Jaitley had rejected the allegations calling it was a propaganda technique of Kejriwal to deflect attention when he himself was in the “dock”.

Kejriwal today tweeted, “A CBI officer told me yesterday that CBI has been asked to target all opposition parties and finish those who don’t fall in line.”

The AAP chief once again chose the social media route to level the charges. He had virtually live-tweeted the CBI raid at his Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar’s office in the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday.

Kejriwal had said Jaitley’s assertion that AAP’s allegations against him are “unsubstantiated and non-specific” could not be treated as “gospel truth” as the charges against him were “very, very serious”.

(Agencies)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Arun Jaitley, Arvind Kejriwal, Rajendra Kumar

DDCA row: AAP poses 5 questions to Jaitley

December 18, 2015 by Nasheman

arun jaitley

New Delhi: The AAP today put “five specific” questions to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley relating to its allegations of corruption in Delhi’s cricket body DDCA under his watch and accused him of giving “vague” response to the charges.

Calling Jaitley a “master of half truth and beautiful lies”, AAP leader Ashutosh made certain fresh allegations against the Finance Minister and said his comments that there was no specific charges against him was “misleading”.

Jaitley has strongly rejected the allegations calling them a propaganda technique of Kejriwal to deflect attention when he himself was in the “dock” following a CBI raid in Delhi Secretariat.

Addressing a press conferencehere, Ashutosh accused DDCA of allowing private firm 21st Century to sub-lease 10 corporate boxes at Feroz Shah Kotla stadium and claimed the firm owned by a friend of Jaitley was extended financial benefit to the tune of over Rs 5 crore for the deal.

The AAP leader asked Jaitley to clarify who were members of the 21st Century and whether it had any of his kin.

The AAP leader also accused Jaitley of putting pressure on ONGC to give an amount of Rs 5 crore to Hockey India and sought to know what was the reason behind it.

Alleging huge financial bungling in reconstruction of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium, the AAP leader said although public sector entity EPIL was paid Rs 57 crore for the project the remaining Rs 57 crore out of the total expenditure of Rs 114 crore was distributed among nine companies.

“The registered address, e-mail and directors of these companies were same. Did Jaitley know about these companies and is it not corruption,” asked the AAP leader.

On Jaitley’s comments that the SFIO report had absolved him, Ashutosh said the Finance Minister hid the fact that punishment for offences mentioned by the central agency included imprisonment.

“We had raised specific questions and Jaitley gave vague answers. That is why we are coming out with five specific questions for him,” AAP leader Sanjay Singh said.

The AAP leaders also asked Jaitley to tell about his relationship with Hockey India chief Narendra Batra.

They said Delhi Government last month had set up committee to probe irregularities in DDCA after getting a communication in this regard from Union Sports Ministry. They said Home Ministry had communicated to Sports Ministry about irregularities in DDCA following which it wrote to Delhi Government.

Following a CBI raid in Delhi Secretariat in connection with charges against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar, AAP has been claiming that the Central agency carried out the searches to target the AAP chief and was looking for a file relating to graft in DDCA.

Since then, the party has been demanding resignation of Jaitley from the Union Cabinet.

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Aam Aadmi Party, AAP, Arun Jaitley, DDCA

AAP calls Jaitley corrupt, asks Modi to sack him

December 17, 2015 by Nasheman

aap

New Delhi: Keeping up the attack on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, AAP today alleged huge financial bunglings in DDCA during his 13 year-old tenure as its chief, saying large amounts were siphoned off through fake companies besides other irregularies including in team selection.

At a press conference here, the AAP leaders, quoting from reports of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), DDCA’s internal probe committee and a Delhi Government-appointed inquiry panel, accused Jaitley of giving “direct and indirect” consent to “massive corruption” in the cricket body.

Jaitley had yesterday rubbished the allegations and said he will not respond to vague charges. “The bunglings had happened under direct or indirect consent of Arun Jaitley during his tenure as DDCA chief. Prime Minister Narendra Modi must ask Jaitley to resign to ensure fair probe as some of the competent agencies to invstigate the are under Finance Ministry,” said AAP Spokesperson Raghav Chadha, flanked by a number of other leaders.

Citing instances of such “frauds”, he alleged an additional expenditure of Rs 90 crore was incurred in renovation of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium against sanctioned budget of Rs 24 crore and that fake companies were set up by DDCA office bearers to siphon off money through roundtripping.

“Payments were made to five companies whose registered addresses were same and were headed by same director. There was duplication of funds and fictitious companies were paid for work they never did,” alleged Chadha. Calling the irregularities a “Commonwealth Scam of Cricket”, they said BJP MP and former cricketer Kirti Azad had been seeking investigation into the serious allegations and a number of inquiry commitees have found gross misappropriation of funds in DDCA.

The AAP leaders repeated their allegations that Jaitley was behind the CBI raid at Delhi Secretariat on Monday as well as “take over” of Delhi ACB from Delhi Government by the Centre to scuttle probe into DDCA affairs.

“The DDCA was a den of corruption under Jaitley,” said Chadha. Asked why they have come out with the reports of SFIO and DDCA’s internal committee which were already in public domain, AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the Delhi government was committed to investigate the irregularities unlike past dispensations which “sat over them”.

“The CBI had come looking for few incriminating documents that are not yet in public domain. The raids were carried out in an attempt to intimidate the Delhi Government,” he alleged.

AAP said the statutory auditor of DDCA has been facing prosecution for fudging accounts and that a statement to this effect was made by MoS in Finance Ministry Jayant Sinha in Parliament.

To Jaitley’s comment that he would only respond to specific charges, Singh said now the Finance Minister should not only answer to the allegations but also should resign from the post. “Jaitley is not only answerable to us. But he is answerable to his own party members.”

The AAP leaders said acting on a communication dated July 27 from Union Sports Ministry, the Delhi government initiated a probe into irregularities in DDCA.

“A three-member committee was formed for the purpose headed by senior IAS officer Chetan Sanghi. The committee on November 17 gave a report to the Chief Minister highlighting glaring irregularities in DDCA and recommended setting up of a Commission of Enquiry to thoroughly probe the matter,” said Chadha.

Ashutosh claimed that Sanghi was threatened of dire consequences by a joint secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The party said 22 days after Sanghi filed the report, on December 9, the ACB registered a case of corruption against him in connection with some of his decisions during the Sheila Dikshit Government.

The AAP leaders quoted a DDCA internal fact-finding committee report which they said “the magnitude and extent of improprieties, irregularities and misconduct committed by various officials were of gigantic proportions”.

They alleged that 10 newly constructed corporate boxes at Feroz Shah Kotla were given out on lease to companies without following laid down rules during Jaitley’ tenure.

“There were instances of proxy litigations to mint money. Lawyers who used to appear against DDCA were paid by the cricket body itself,” said Chadha.

They alleged that Jaitley had turned DDCA into “an exclusive club of elites and had institutionalised corruption. Only wards of political leaders and the rich can hope to play for Delhi due to nepotism.”

AAP said forged age cerificates were used to fudge to let certain players get selected despite exceeding age limit and quoted FIR into large number of such cases which the Delhi Police did not pursue.

“Selection of selectors and players for across age groups were as per Jaitley’s choice,” said Singh adding the party will come out with “part two of the revealation soon”. Kumar Vishwas said the party had “overheard” that there was a big agenda against it lined up for Friday.

(Agencies)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Aam Admi Party, AAP, Arun Jaitley, Arvind Kejriwal, Rajendra Kumar

Dadri like incidents hurt country’s image: Arun Jaitley

October 6, 2015 by Nasheman

arun jaitley

New York: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has condemned the lynching of a man over beef eating rumour in UP, saying such incidents hurt the country’s image.

“India is a mature society. We need to rise above these kinds of incidents because they certainly don’t give a good name as far as the country is concerned,” he told reporters here after a lecture at Columbia University yesterday.

He was responding when asked to comment on the lynching incident in Dadri which has happened at a time when the government was wooing foreign investors.

“I have also said they can amount to policy diversions in that context so it is the responsibility of every Indian in his actions or comments to stay clear of unfortunate and condemnable instances like this,” the senior BJP leader said.

A 50-year-old man was lynched and his son was critically injured by a mob in Dadri on last Monday after rumours that they had consumed beef.

(Agencies)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Arun Jaitley, Beef, BJP, Dadri, Mohammad Akhlaq, Mohammad Iqlakh

Only grabbing headlines: Arun Shourie attacks Modi government

May 2, 2015 by Nasheman

Asked if the Modi government had done enough to put India on growth path, Mr. Shourie said that it was “all hyperbole.”

arun-shourie

Arun Shourie, a Minister in the Vajpayee Cabinet, hit out at the Narendra Modi government on Friday, saying its economic policy was “directionless” while the social climate was causing “great anxiety” among the minorities.

Mr. Shourie said the one-year rule of Modi was “good in parts”, his transformation as Prime Minister was good in foreign policy, but the promised turnaround in the economy had not happened.

“The government seems to be more concerned with managing headlines than putting policies in place. The situation is like the many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle lying in a mess with no big picture in mind about how to put them together,” he told a private news channel. Mr. Shourie, who is not active in BJP these days, said despite promises, the fears of foreign investors on retrospective taxes and incentives for manufacturing have not materialised on the ground. “They (investors) require stability and predictability,” he said, adding that the concern expressed by banker Deepak Parekh on the situation on the ground should be seen as a “wake-up call“.

Asked if the Modi government had done enough to put India on growth path, Mr. Shourie said that it was “all hyperbole.”

“Such claims are meant to grab headlines but lack substance,” he said. “The government is talking big on economic matters, but nothing is happening on the ground. Delivery is missing,” he added.

In an apparent reference to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, he said the government lacked a stable approach in dealing with investors and that “lawyerly arguments” would not convince them. He was also critical of handling of the tax issues which was keeping foreign investors away. “First it alienated them but now it has made them laugh. You come out as bullies.”

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Amit Shah, Arun Jaitley, Arun Shourie, BJP, Narendra Modi

Cabinet approves Bill on black money

March 18, 2015 by Nasheman

BLACK-MONEY

New Delhi: To check black money menace, the Cabinet today approved a new Bill that would give more powers to the tax department in tracking illicit wealth stashed abroad and provide for strict penal actions for such offence.

Sources said that the Cabinet approved the new Bill this evening and it could be presented in Parliament during the ongoing session.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced in his Budget speech on February 28 that the government would bring in a comprehensive law to check the black money menace by providing for a jail term of up to 10 years for hiding foreign assets and up to 300 per cent penalty.

Jaitley had also said that a host of other tough measures including dis-incentivising of cash dealings in Real Estate and other transactions would be put in place.

Under the proposed law, concealment of income and assets and evasion of tax in relation to foreign assets will be prosecutable with rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years, Jaitley had said, while adding that the offence will be made non-compoundable and the offenders will not be permitted to approach the Settlement Commission.

As regards curbing domestic black money, the Finance Minister had said a new and more comprehensive Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill would be introduced in the current session of Parliament.

He had also proposed to amend the Income-tax Act to prohibit “acceptance or payment” of an advance of Rs 20,000 or more in cash for purchase of immovable property.

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Arun Jaitley, Black Money, Corruption

No snooping on Rahul, it is 'transparent profiling': Jaitley

March 16, 2015 by Nasheman

Rahul-Gandhi

New Delhi: Government today countered the Congress charges of snooping on Rahul Gandhi saying it was making a “mountain out of what is not even a molehill” as information collection was part of a transparent security profiling used on 526 VIPs, including Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Ministers.

Responding to charges of snooping and spying on political opponents by Opposition Congress and SP in Rajya Sabha, Leader of the House Arun Jaitley said the police has been collecting such information since 1987 on VIPs operating out of Lutyens Delhi through a profoma form as part of security profiling.

The proforma, which was revised in 1999, has been used to profile former prime ministers H D Dewa Gowda, I K Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The same was also used to profile Congress President Sonia Gandhi in October 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, the Finance Minister said.

Pranab Mukherjee, before becoming the President, was profiled in 2001, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2012, while senior BJP leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj, Ahmed Patel of Congress, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury and Sharad Yadav of JD-U were also profiled, he said.

“526 persons have been profiled using the present form,” he said, adding this was part of “transparent, security profiling and not associated with any kind of snooping or sypying.”

“It is not that it has been started in the last 8 months,” he said and proposed to sit with Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad to go through the 526 forms filled during the previous UPA rule.

On the proforma seeking information on shoe size, colour of eyes and other such information, Jaitley said former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was identified by his shoes after his assassination.

Security needs and profiling should be left to security experts and “we should not attempt to become one”, he said, adding “the issue raised is making mountain of what is not even a molehill.”

Jaitley said the practice of security profiling started in 1987 under Congress rule.

Maintaining that he had given a notice under Rule 267 to suspend business so as to take up the issue, Azad said in his 35 year career, including as a top security protectee, he had not seen such a proforma for security profiling.

Rahul Gandhi, he said, has been a SPG protectee right since his father Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister and it was beyond comprehension why Delhi Police was only now collecting such information like his shoe size, colour of hair, habits, his associates, friends and aides.

After an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Special Branch of Delhi Police visited Rahul Gandhi’s 12 Tughlaq Lane Residence on March 2, two senior officers had again visited his place on March 14 to gather information on his aides, Azad said.

Charging the government with snooping and spying on political opponents, he said the government was “resorting to threats, coersion and pressure to quell political dissent”.

“If you raise voice, the Central Government can use any measure,” he said demanding that Home Minister Rajnath Singh should come to the House and explain.

Last year there were reports of NDA government minister’s telephone being tapped, he said, adding since BJP assumed power in May 2014, religious and political freedom have been curbed. “The Delhi Police action is against privacy and against democracy,” Azad said.

K C Tyagi (JD-U) said the security profiling has “never been heard of” and demanded a discussion on invasion of privacy as well as corporate and political espionage.

Naresh Agarwal (SP) alleged that one lakh telephones were being tapped everyday without requisite permission and warned that the privacy of individuals should not be challenged.

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Arun Jaitley, BJP, Congress, Rahul Gandhi

Budget for the rich to get richer and throw crumbs to the poor – Statement by NTUI

March 2, 2015 by Nasheman

Union Budget 2015 2016

by Gautam Mody, NTUI

New Delhi: The Union Budget of 2015-16, the BJP government’s first full budget, has a sense of triumphalism that it ‘can fly’ because it believes that , the ‘opportunity for this exist because we (the BJP government) have created it’ over the last nine-and-a-half months. This government is taking credit for conditions and circumstances that it has nothing to do with or did not, in the remotest way, have the ability or opportunity to contribute to. The BJP government rewards itself with the entire credit for the deceleration of the rate of inflation. It does not anywhere take note of the fact that inflationary pressure and therefore the country’s current account balance, has anything to do with the fact that international oil prices are at their lowest level in 5 years and at, in fact, half of what they were in May 2014. The BJP government would be wise to note that almost identical circumstances marked the euphoria at the start of the second UPA government. Furthermore, although inflation indices may show a decline, the measure of food price inflation is yet to show any significant decline.

The second reason that appears to tell the BJP government that its’ time to ‘fly’ has come is that, based on revised government statistics, it has given itself the title of the ‘fastest growing largest economy’ in the world. The government’s Economic Survey 2014-15 (ES), released on 27 February 2015, indicated that the economy will grow in 2015-16 by anywhere between 8.1 to 8.5 percent from a growth of 5.9 percent in the current year (2014-15).

A substantial part of the Budget Statement is interspersed with the promise that ‘every rupee of public expenditure…will contribute to the betterment of people’s lives through job creation, poverty elimination and economic growth’. Hence the test we must apply to this budget is whether the growth inspired by this budget will indeed contribute to job creation and poverty elimination. Equally, we are concerned about whether this rate of growth will introduce stability in the economy and what its distributional consequences will be for the working class.

Reducing Poverty by Reducing Budgetary Provision on Social Protection

The government’s promise of ‘poverty elimination’ comes with an across-the-board reduction in government expenditure on social protection and social security. The funds allocated for the MGNREGA are frozen at Rs. 34,000 crores and have for the first time come to below 2 percent of government expenditure. Expenditure on health, education, women and child development, both rural and urban housing, drinking water and sanitation, and welfare of SCs, STs and minorities all taken together have faced cuts amounting to 1 percent of the total budgeted expenditure or nearly Rs. 10,000 crores. If we break these down and adjust for the increases in the Prime Ministers pet projects ‘Swachh Bharat’ and urban housing through public private partnerships (PPP), then the reductions in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the Mid-day Meal Scheme, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), the National Rural Health Mission and the Indira Aawas Yojana are not insignificant. Apart from not allowing for the scaling up of these critical programmes, the reduced budgetary support implies that the roughly 1 crore ‘honorarium’ workers employed by these programmes will not see an increase in their meagre wages and will continue to remain close to the poverty line.

Not to be seen as wanting in generosity, the Budget Statement increases the provision for food subsidy by a ‘generous’ sum of Rs. 2,000 crores to Rs. 124,000 crores. The full implementation of the National Food Security Act would require significantly more budgetary support than this which implies, despite the expressed promise of transparency, that the BJP government has decided to accept the Shanta Kumar Committee recommendation of restructuring the Food Corporation of India and curtailing the reach of the NFSA.

Universal Social Security defined by ability to pay

Additionally, the BJP government commits itself to creating a ‘universal social security system’ for which government is willing to commit Rs. 1200 crores. This will support contributory pension, accident and life insurance schemes which the government will support for a maximum of five years. Even through the most generous computation, these schemes can reach 1.2 crore people or about 2.5% of the working population.

Towards furthering a ‘universal social security system’, government commits itself to providing workers a choice between health care benefits under Employee State Insurance and contributory health insurance and between Employees’ Provident Fund and the New Pension Scheme. In ‘choosing’ between health care and retiral benefits that are guaranteed and protected under law, the government is playing on the monetary hardship of workers ‘below a certain threshold of monthly income’ in pushing them to low contribution options in the private sector. The BJP government’s objective is not to create a system of universal social security but to universalise, in every sphere of economic life, the principle of capacity to pay and ability to pay.

‘Ease of Business’ means the exchequer will guarantee the profits

Having turned over the task of social security to private insurance and pension companies, the BJP government recognises that the private sector is in trouble and cannot really drive growth and lacks the capacity to invest in the economy to drive growth and create jobs, as its Economic Survey admitted: ‘The situation of Indian public-sector banks and corporate balance sheets suggests that the expectation that the private sector will drive investment needs to be moderated’. And even though it explicitly acknowledges in both its 2014-15 and 2015-16 budgets that the PPP model does not work, the BJP government committed itself to the PPP model (3PIndia) as the institutionalised sponsorship of the private sector by government in its 2014 Budget, and now, it goes one step further in cementing this sponsorship by confirming that the ‘sovereign will have to bear a major part of the risk’ for capital investment. These ‘sovereign’ or government guaranteed loans will come from tax free bonds.

The commitment of the BJP government to subsidise the private sector cannot be in doubt. The job will not be completed merely by guaranteeing loans for private investment. For a start, it will hand over five ultra mega power projects to the private sector after putting in place ‘all clearances’ in the ‘plug-and-play mode’. Besides these five power projects, government will consider other infrastructure projects, too, including railways, ports, highways and airports. The package of the BJP government’s policy issued through the present and the previous BSs along with the Land Acquisition and Coal Ordinances represent that for ‘ease of business’ to succeed, ‘eminent domain’ must be in place. ‘Eminent domain’ must exist for the private sector so that ease of profit allows Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s ‘ease of business’ model to work.

In the knowledge that ease of profits for infrastructure will not be sufficient to pull in enough investable resources to drive 8+ percent growth, the BJP government must necessarily turn its attention to foreign investment. Various tax concessions have been extended to foreign portfolio investors, including those who do not wish to register themselves in the country. Special provisions are also to be put in place under the BS to ease the functioning of private equity and hedge funds that are in polite company called Alternative Investment Funds. Most of all, the distinction between foreign portfolio investment (that is speculative and moves from one country to another and one company to another) and foreign direct investment (that is stable in a single company) has been effectively extinguished. This will serve to tilt the balance towards more short-termism, more speculation and even less towards long-term investment in technology, innovation and skills than is currently the case with multinational companies.

In addition to the foregoing, the BJP government promises to lower corporate tax – the tax on companies – from the present 30 percent to 25 percent over the length of this government. The budget abolishes wealth tax and replaces it with a 2 percent cess on those with incomes of Rs. 1 crore or more. This will brings in Rs. 9,000 crores a year or about 0.50 percent of the total budgeted government expenditure for 2015-16. Conversely, service tax will rise from 12.36 percent to 14 percent. While on the one hand, the BJP government has made clear that it will continue to provide tax breaks on corporate and personal income taxes by raising service tax and confirming the introduction of the Goods and Service Tax by April 2016, the BJP government will extend the reliance on indirect taxes. Although the BS does announce a new legislation for hunting down black money abroad, its scrapping of the proposal for the Direct Tax Code to plug loopholes in taxes and putting the General Anti-Avoidance Rules on the back burner is an indication of how serious the BJP government is about plugging loopholes at home.

The BJP government’s tax proposals will potentially ‘forego’ about Rs. 600,000 crores. Of this, some 10% or Rs. 60,000 crores will be the direct benefit to private companies. While the BJP government expects the economy to grow at 8+ percent a year, the BS only estimates an increase in tax revenues of 1.35% as compared to the previous year. The Tax-to-GDP ratio is expected to dip to less than 10 percent over the next year. This would mean taking the country back to the same state as at the time of the last BJP government.

Who will pay for government expenditure?

The questions remains: where is the money to meet government expenditure going to come from, in the absence of increased tax revenue, and where will the money for capital investment come from, to create the jobs that will ‘make in India’? Monies to meet government’s expenditure will come from two sources – first, nearly 10 percent of government expenditure will be met through interest and dividend payments to government by public sector undertakings and the sale of shares (disinvestment) in public sector undertakings. The most important source of government funds will come through borrowings.

As for job creation, from its own side, the BJP government plans to invest a sum total of Rs. 70,000 crores in capital investment. The BS does not tell us where it will go. No one knows at this point how much of it will go to shoring up PPPs. At any rate, the amounts on offer are in fact less than 0.50 percent of GDP. This is going to be far from sufficient to drive 8 percent growth or take it to the ‘double-digits’, as the BS promises for the years ahead. The BJP government is relying on an additional Rs. 320,000 crores to be invested by public sector corporations. Hence ‘make in India’, too, will be for the private sector with the resources of the public sector.

The general condition of the economy is poor and the ‘roadmap for the future’, as put forward by the BS, provides little hope for working people. For one, the entire fiscal framework – of taxation and spending – of the BJP government will contribute further to inequalities. Second, the increased ‘sovereign’ borrowings to finance investment will be further tax-free transfers to the rich. And third, the dependence on foreign investment flows pushes up the value of the rupee which makes our exports more expensive abroad and makes it difficult to export our goods abroad. This bodes poorly for sustained and stable levels of economic growth and therefore for job creation and wages with growing inequalities.

And yet, perhaps, there is still a chance for achhe din! The BS promises that if the rich pay taxes beyond expectation (the level of which remains unstated), the BJP government will throw in an additional Rs. 10,000 crores (or a total of 0.50 percent of budgeted expenditure) to fund the MGNREGA, Integrated ICDS, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. Working people must live in the hope that the rich get richer – for it is then that the BJP government will throw crumbs at them.

Gautam Mody is the General Secretary of New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI).

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Arun Jaitley, BJP, Budget, Economy

Highlights of Union Budget 2015

February 28, 2015 by Nasheman

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with his Budget team leaves for Rashtrapati Bhavan in this file photo. Pradeep Gaur/Mint

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with his Budget team leaves for Rashtrapati Bhavan in this file photo. Pradeep Gaur/Mint

New Delhi: Presenting the national budget for the next fiscal, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Saturday said the state of the country’s economy was better placed today with its credibility re-established by a series of measures taken by his government.

“I am presenting the union budget in an economic environment which is far more positive than in the recent past. While major economies of the world face difficulties, India is poised for higher growth trajectory,” Jaitley said as he started his budget speech in the Lok Sabha.

“The real GDP growth is estimated at 7.5 percent for this fiscal, making India the fastest-growing large economy of the world,” said Jaitley, watched keenly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seated next to him.

“We inherited a sentiment of doom and gloom and have come a long way by proper actions,” said the finance minister, adding: “Our objective is to improve quality of life and to pass benefits to common man.”

He also said a double-digit growth was now feasible. “Our objective is to conquer inflation. It will be only 5 percent by end of year.”

The finance minister said his government did not intend to do away with subsidies but target them better to achieve the goals. He also said some Rs.8.5 lakh crore will be provided to farmers in the form of credit, along with an allocation of Rs.5,300 crore for irrigation.

He also said allocations for a host of social sector projects was being enhanced substantially along with some new social security schemes. He particularly said the allocation for the rural job guarantee scheme will be the highest ever.

Highlights:

  • Changes in excise on tobacco items, including cigarettes, paan masala and gutkha

  • Tax exemption for contributions to ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ and ‘Clean Ganga Fund’ by corporates as part of CSR

  • Increase in limit of deduction in health insurance from Rs.15,000 to Rs.25,000

  • For senior citizens, this limit to be increased from Rs.30,000 from present Rs.10,000

  • Deduction limit of Rs.60,000 on account of serious diseases to be enhanced to Rs.80,000 for senior citizens

  • Exemption on contributions to Pension Fund hiked from Rs.1 lakh to Rs.1.5 lakh per year

  • All investment payments in ‘Sukanya Scheme’ will be fully exempted from tax

  • Transport allowance exemption raised from Rs.800 to Rs.1,600 per month

  • Wealth Tax to be abolished and additional two percent tax on super rich to yield Rs.9,000 crore annually

  • Excise duty on footwear with leather uppers to be reduced to six percent

  • Service tax and education levy to be consolidated from 12.36 percent to 14 percent

  • Swachh Bharat cess of two percent, if necessary

  • Law against Benami property in fight against black money

  • Quoting PAN essential in property transactions

  • Splitting of transaction not to be permitted

  • Tax regime to be rationalised

  • Applicability of General Avoidance Rules (GAR) to be deferred by two years in view of problems faced in its implementation

  • Non-Plan expenditure in 2015-16 estimated at Rs.1,312,200 crore; Plan expenditure estimated at Rs.465,277 crore

  • Tax collection in 2015-16 estimated at Rs.1,449,490 crore

  • Corporate tax to be reduced to 25 percent from 30 percent in four years

  • Rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years for concealing income

  • Prevention of Money Laundering Act to be amended to provide for forfeiture of property in India if the one abroad cannot be attached

  • Exemption to individual tax payers to continue

  • In last nine months several steps taken to effectively deal with problem of black money

  • Comprehensive new law to be brought against black money

  • New structure to be put in place in banking sector for seamless integration of data

  • Adequate provision for defence with Rs.246,727 crore earmarked this year

  • Fully IT-based student-help facility for needy students

  • Eastern states to be given opportunity to develop faster. Special boost to Bihar and West Bengal as in the case of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

  • Good progress in DMIC corridor and other infra-projects. Rs.1,200 crore earmarked and additional funds if pace of work picks up on ongoing projects

  • Procurement law to be drawn up to ensure transparency and remove corruption

  • Centenary of Deen Dayal Upadhyay to be celebrated; committee for this to be set up soon

  • During 2015-16 AIIMS-like institutes to be set up in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh; Bihar to get second AIIMS-like institution

  • Karnataka to get an IIT; Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad to be upgraded to IIT

  • Good progress being made on Digital India

  • To discourage transactions in cash, Rupee debit card to incentivise credit transactions

  • In line with ‘Act East Policy’, steps to catalyse investment in this sector through a project development company to oversee investments in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam

  • Tourism has increased after Visa on Arrival introduced for 43 countries. This facility to be increased to 150 countries in different stages

  • Public Debt Management Agency to be created to strengthen the bond market

  • Gold Monetisation Scheme to be introduced; sovereign gold bonds to be introduced; working on developing Indian gold coin with Ashok Chakra on face

  • Vision of making India cashless society

  • Foreign Investment in alternative investment funds to be permitted

  • Ports in public sector to be encouraged to utilise land under their control

  • Make India investment-destination by streamlining permission procedures

  • Five ultra-mega power projects each of 4,000 MW to be set up

  • MGNREGA allocation to be enhanced by Rs.5,000 crore, if additional funds available

  • Integrated education and livelihood scheme to be launched

  • “The Everlasting Flame” exhibition on Parsis to be launched

  • National investment and infrastructure fund to be launched with corpus of Rs.20,000 crore to generate more funds

  • Innovation initiative to be launched in NITI Aayog in the name of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

  • Government committed to increasing access of people to the banking system

  • Universal social security system for all Indians, especially poor and disadvantaged sections

  • Atal Pension Yojna for economically disadvantaged

  • PPF and EPF corpus to be utilised for senior citizens’ welfare fund

  • Physical aids and assisting devices for physically challenged senior citizens

  • Main challenges: increasing agricultural production; increasing investment in infrastructure; with manufacturing declining, Make in India will create jobs; cooperative federalism

  • Agriculture credit targetted at Rs.8.5 lakh crore

  • Rural jobs scheme to get Rs.34,699 crore; Every poor to get a job

  • To work with NITI Aayog for creating a National Agricultural Market

  • Need well-targeted system for subsidies.

  • Direct transfer of subsidy to LPG consumers

  • Appeal to well-off consumers to surrender subsidised LPG connections

  • Organic farm schemes of agriculture ministry to be supported

  • ‘Per drop More crop’ scheme for better irrigation

  • Three achievements – Jan Dhan Yojna, coal auctions, Swachh Bharat

  • Two more gamechanging reforms: Goods and Services Tax, JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojna, Aadhar, Mobile number) to ensure transparency

  • Our achievement to conquer inflation, CPI inflation at five percent by year-end

  • GDP growth at 7.4 percent in 2014-15 and at 8-8.5 percent in 2015-16; double-digit growth feasible

  • We are in an economic environment far more positive than in the recent past

  • Undertaken several significant steps to energise the Indian economy in last nine months

  • India’s chance to fly

  • Budget proposals lay down roadmap for economic growth.

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Arun Jaitley, BJP, Budget

GDP in 2015-16 to be 8-8.5%; double-digit growth soon, says FM

February 28, 2015 by Nasheman

Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said growth in the next financial year will rise to 8-8.5 per cent and clock double-digit level in the subsequent years.

“Growth in 2015-16 is expected to be between 8-8.5 per cent. Aiming for a double digit rate seems feasible very soon,” he said while presenting the Budget for 2015-16 in the Lok Sabha.

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has recently revised the base year for calculation of GDP growth to 2011-12. As per this, the economic growth rate in 2013-14 is estimated at 6.9 per cent and for 2014-15 at 7.4 per cent.

The Economic Survey had yesterday said that growth will receive a boost from the cumulative impact of reforms, lower oil prices, likely monetary policy easing facilitated by lower inflation, and forecasts of a normal monsoon in 2015-16.

The government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which assumed power in May last year, has initiated a slew of economic reforms, including de-regulation of diesel prices, raising FDI caps in several sectors, and direct transfer of LPG subsidy to beneficiaries.

(PTI)

Filed Under: India Tagged With: Arun Jaitley, Budget, GDP

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