Press Release

The following statement was issued to press today on budget by Ms. Amarjeet Kaur, General Secretary, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)

NDA government budget fails to address the concerns of common man, unemployed and vulnerable sections.

The NDA Govt. budget presented by Finance Minister was more of a jugglery of words, manipulation of statistics and deceitful way of putting things to sell dreams once again without backing of concrete steps and actions needed to implement the statement of ‘intent’ made.

The Finance Minister ended with quote from Swamy Vivekanand but his budget was just opposed to what Swamy ji wanted India to emerge from as a powerful nation of working people to full fill their aspirations, and attain a life of dignity.

The budget once again gives huge concessions to the corporates and big businesses including on focus to foreign investments, and continued disinvestments of Public sector units to the tune of Rs. 80000 crores in the coming year. The Govt wants to be satisfied with certificate from International Monetary fund for the growth estimates, as the Govt once again appeared to be committed to tag India’s economy with International finance capital. Ease of Business continued to be the keyword.

Several heads were amalgamated & repeated across various projects while duplicating to show huge amounts of allocations which is far from truth. On the one hand side 100 percent FDI is being brought in animal husbandry and on the other side it is nearly lip service made in the budget to this sector & fisheries.

The Govt had failed to fulfill its election promise to raise income of farmers by one & half times and once again the lollypop is distributed on similar promise. Nothing serious emerged how to tackle agrarian crises which is accepted even by Economic Survey Report. Only grant of the loan limits are increased, from ten lakh crores to eleven lakh crores how to take farmers out of indebtedness is no where in sight. The amount announced is meager for creation of farmer markets and irrigation.

While speaking on Education, health & basic amenities it seemed the Finance Minister is addressing only the upper middle class, elites and not the vulnerable common man which constitutes more than 80% of population. Black board to digital board is talked but those who do not have black boards in schools or those who have no access to black boards are not in the agenda of government.

Some adjectives are added as usual to SC & ST population with inflated figures of four years as if it is for the year 2018 – 2019. The population figure is presented to appear as if all of them are going to hugely benefit.

The medical colleges are only the upgradation of existing ones, but are projected as if new colleges are coming out. Announcements on RSBY are made which would enhance the business of private hospitals and private insurance companies. But public health system is not addressed, even when health care is becoming out of reach of common man.

Cess is being increased on Education & Health which will further add to indirect taxation on common man. On the other side the tax concessions to corporate and big business continued in this budget also.

70 lakh jobs were lost after demonetization and Govt. is talking of creating only 17 lakh jobs. Another six crores of people are expected to loose livelihood in informal sector according to independent surveys& 17 lakhs formal jobs to be further lost says the same survey.

Talking of railways and airways, concern and needs of vast majority of people of public transportation are not addressed, once again the FM was playing to the gallery of elites and affluents.

The budget dodged the common people who are in misery due to price rise in essential commodities and the students youth of India who want good inexpensive education in govt. sector and the employment to live with dignity.

Released from AITUC headquarters

35-36, DDU Marg, Road Rouse Avenue, New Delhi

Akshay-8447230937

Source: Confederation

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Press Release

1st February 2018

THE UNION BUDGET 2018-19: ANTI-PEOPLE ANTI-WORKER AND DECEPTIVE

The Union Budget 2018-19, presented by the Finance Minister of the Narendra Modi Govt today on a preliminary scrutiny, turns out to be deceptive one, meticulously articulated to misguide and confuse the people. The Budget is anti-workers, anti-people and also militates against the national interest. CITU condemns such an anti-people exercise.

The Budget remained liberal about extending concession to business houses. On the plea of supporting Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) the Budget extended the reduced corporate tax rate of 25% to companies having Rs 250 crore annual turnover. Is the turnover the right measure of identifying an MSME or the ‘capital deployed’ should categorise the MSME more honestly ? Will it really benefit the genuine MSMEs or allow the big players to corner the benefit ? However through such deceptive manner the burden on corporate houses has been reduced further by Rs 7000 crore while giving no relief to suffering millions reeling under post GST indirect tax burden. This along with other pro-corporate policy drives continued to remain the pattern of budget exercise of the Modi Govt in successive years of its governance pushing the entire country in the midst of extreme and obscene income inequality of one percent people cornering 73% of the national wealth. And yet the Govt will continue to call itself pro-poor.

Budget speech made no mistake in mentioning its resolve to extend the atrocious “fixed term employment” system to all the sectors consistent with its brazenly anti-worker pro-corporate drive for labour-law changes designed to impose slavery on the workers. While speaking lavishly about improving health, education and social welfare services toward universalisation, it remained totally negative in considering the long standing demands of about a crore workers working in its flagship scheme of NHM, Mid-day-Meal(MDM) and ICDS (Anganwadi) and other related central govt schemes of extending them at least the right to statutory minimum wages and attendant social security benefits. In fact the allocation under National Health Mission (NHM) has been reduced and on ICDS and MDM there are marginal increase that too for other expenditures. Such an attitude is utterly condemnable.

On employment generation also, the claim made in the budget speech is also not true. In fact, even as per official estimate, the net employment generation has turned negative in absolute term if job-losses owing to closure of factories/establishments during the period is taken into account. The claim of creation of 70 lakh jobs in the formal sector said to be based on the increase in number of EPFO data as touted by a so called “independent study” upheld by the Finance Minister is another hoax to confuse and misguide the people and a cruel joke on the several lakhs of unemployed. Rather every step of this Modi Govt is degenerating the employment situation in the country; and all concessions being given to business houses by the Govt including bearing the burden of employers contribution in EPF, allowing liberal income tax rebate to employers on account of wages paid to the newly employed workers etc is actually an arrangement of organized pilferage from the national exchequer by the employers’ class in complicity with the custodians of the said exchequer, without creating any employment whatsoever. Added to this has been the recent move of abolishing all posts in central govt establishment deliberately kept vacant for last five years, killing lakhs of employment positions.

The Budget speech has gone extremely lavish in pronouncing commitments for development of agriculture and rural development along with launching so many schemes, whereas budgetary allocation for 2018-19 both on account of Agriculture and Allied Services and Rural Development marked a marginal increase of Rs 9793 crore in nominal term meaning actually a decline both in real terms and also as a percentage of GDP and total budgetary allocations. The Budget gave a shockingly surprising news that the Govt has already implemented the Minimum Support Price (MSP) at the rate of one and half times of production cost for majority of the Rabi Crops and now the Govt is committed to extend the same to Kharif crops in the current year also which is totally untrue. Even Govt’s deposition before the Apex Court in this matter is reportedly negative.

Similarly, the budgetary statement about putting in place under its flagship programme of National Health protection Scheme to provide for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization at the rate of Rs 5 lakh per family per year to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, if weighed in terms of actual budgetary allocations, turns out be another hoax. The budgetary allocation on this account is merely Rs 1600 core which can cover hardly 10 lakh families (and not 10 crore). And such discrepancy exposes the dubious intent. Overall, behind the shrill fraudulent noise of all round development, the budget continued to remain a contractionary budget and focus of almost all govt expenditures are designed to benefit only the rich and propertied business class and the common people and the workers in particular are being subjected to deeper exploitation and repression.

Budget speech lavishly spoke about developing self reliance in defence production and what is being actually done is setting the process of destruction of the existing indigenous manufacturing capabilities in the Ordnance factories, the defence PSUs and country’s shipyards by way of mass scale outsourcing in favour of private sector, both foreign and domestic turning around half of the Ordnance Factories redundant and starving the Defence PSUs and Shipyards of work-orders. On the same way, under the camouflage of expanding Railway network, the project of total privatization of Railways is being pursued in full swing. Are these in any manner serving national interests or sabotaging the same in favour of foreign players ?

The Govt has been moving fast in selling out the national assets through wholesale privatization. In the current year the target for disinvestment /privatization is kept at Rs 80000 crore to keep on the pace of its ‘destroy India’ programme under the camouflage of “Make in India”.

CITU denounced the budget 2018-19 of the Modi Govt and calls upon the working class to unitedly protest and fight against the fraud and exploitation they are being subjected to simultaneously.

Issued by
(Tapan Sen )
General Secretary

Source: Confederation

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Ref-BMS/D-20/37/2018

Dated-01-02-2018

Press statement issued by Sri Virjesh Upadhyay , General Secretary, BMS on 1st February 2018.

Budget disappointing for the Labour – BMS to hold countrywide demonstrations on 2nd February

Even though today’s budget for the first time has given more thrust to rural development, agriculture, health, infrastructure etc., it has totally neglected the woes of labour. Anganwadi workers, ASHA karmis and other scheme workers who belong to the poorest paid workers appointed under the Central Government have nothing as relief in the budget. Middle class employees are unhappy with no increase in their ceiling for tax exemption; at the same time the cess on income tax is increased from 3% to 4%. This was done at a time when the budget claimes 41% increase in the tax payers’ net.

Moreover the Government treasury has been hugely benefitted by the new GST regime, demonetization and digitalized bank transactions. Now there is a system by which last paise to be paid as direct or indirect tax will reach the Govt. treasury.

The unorganized sector workers’ Social security fund is also not given any support in the budget. Budget says the women employees need to pay only 8% contribution to EPF in startups. The increase in take home salary for women will reduce 16% of their future savings in the EPF when they leave their establishment within few years. The burden of merger of Insurance Companies also will be on the workers, and there is no Government’s assurance on their job security, transfer, promotion etc.

There is also no provision for revival of viable sick CPSUs, instead the Government is focusing its attention on Strategic sale of 24PSUs; increase in EPF pension from the current Rs.1000/- and budget allocation for cess withdraw from 9 labour welfare funds. Budget also omitted to increase allocation for MGNREGA so that it can increase the wage and number of working days.

Budget unilaterally announces fixed term employment to be extended to all employment. All labour related changes in law has to be discussed in the tripartite forum and then finalized. Now the draft notification on fixed term employment issued on 8th January is pending consultation with trade unions. In the meanwhile it is totally unfair on the part of Government to unilaterally announce it in Budget.

All these shows the total neglect of Government on labour. It is a labour unfriendly budget.

Hence, BMS decided to protest against Budget. It directs all its units to hold demonstrations demanding review on budget proposals.

its future course on unsettled issues related to labour will be decided in the coming National Executive Committee meeting to be held on 6-8 February .

Yours faithfully,
sd/-
(Virjesh Upadhyay)
General Secretary

Source: Confederation

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• Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley presents general Budget 2018-19 in Parliament.
• Budget guided by mission to strengthen agriculture, rural development, health,
  education, employment, MSME and infrastructure sectors
• Government says, a series of structural reforms will propel India among the fastest growing economies of the world. Country firmly on course to achieve
  over 8 % growth as manufacturing, services and exports back on good
  growth path.
• MSP for all unannounced kharif crops will be one and half times of their production cost like majority of rabi crops: Institutional Farm Credit raised to 11 lakh crore in 2018-19 from 8.5 lakh crore in 2014-15.
• 22,000 rural haats to be developed and upgraded into Gramin Agricultural
  Markets to protect the interests of 86% small and marginal farmers.
• “Operation Greens” launched to address price fluctuations in potato, tomato and onion for benefit of farmers and consumers.
• Two New Funds of Rs10,000 crore announced for Fisheries and Animal Husbandary sectors; Re-structured National Bamboo Mission gets Rs.1290 crore.
• Loans to Women Self Help Groups will increase to Rs.75,000 crore in 2019 from 42,500 crore last year.
• Higher targets for Ujjwala, Saubhagya and Swachh Mission to cater to lower and
  middle class in providing free LPG connections, electricity and toilets.
• Outlay on health, education and social protection will be 1.38 lakh crore. Tribal students to get Ekalavya Residential School in each tribal block by 2022. Welfare fund for SCs gets a boost.
• World’s largest Health Protection Scheme covering over 10 crore poor and
  vulnerable families launched with a family limit upto 5 lakh rupees for
  secondary and tertiary treatment.
• Fiscal Deficit pegged at 3.5 %, projected at 3.3 % for 2018-19.. Rs. 5.97 lakh crore allocation for infrastructure
  
  
• Ten prominent sites to be developed as Iconic tourist destinations
• NITI Aayog to initiate a national programme on Artificial Intelligence(AI)
• Centres of excellence to be set up on robotics, AI, Internet of things etc
• Disinvestment crossed target of Rs 72,500 crore to reach Rs 1,00,000 crore.
• Comprehensive Gold Policy on the anvil to develop yellow metal as an asset class
• 100 percent deduction proposed to companies registered as Farmer Producer Companies with an annual turnover upto Rs. 100 crore on profit derived from such activities, for five years from 2018-19.
• Deduction of 30 percent on emoluments paid to new employees Under Section 80-JJAA to be relaxed to 150 days for footwear and leather industry, to create more employment.
• No adjustment in respect of transactions in immovable property where
  Circle Rate value does not exceed 5 percent of consideration.
• Proposal to extend reduced rate of 25 percent currently available for companies
  with turnover of less than 50 crore (in Financial Year 2015-16), to
  companies reporting turnover up to Rs. 250 crore in Financial Year
  2016-17, to benefit micro, small and medium enterprises.
• Standard Deduction of Rs. 40,000 in place of present exemption for transport
  allowance and reimbursement of miscellaneous medical expenses. 2.5 crore
  salaried employees and pensioners to benefit.
• Relief to Senior Citizens proposed:
  • Exemption of interest income on deposits with banks and post offices to be increased from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000.
  • TDS not required to be deducted under section 194A. Benefit also available for interest from all fixed deposit schemes and recurring deposit
    schemes.
  • Hike in deduction limit for health insurance premium and/ or medical expenditure from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 under section 80D.
  • Increase in deduction limit for medical expenditure for certain critical illness from Rs. 60,000 (in case of senior citizens) and from Rs. 80,000 (in case of very senior citizens) to Rs. 1 lakh for all senior citizens, under section 80DDB.
  • Proposed to extend Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana up to March, 2020. Current investment limit proposed to be increased to Rs. 15 lakh from the existing limit of Rs. 7.5 lakh per senior citizen.
    
• More concessions for International Financial Services Centre (IFSC), to promote trade in stock exchanges located in IFSC.
• To control cash economy, payments exceeding Rs. 10,000 in cash made by
  trusts and institutions to be disallowed and would be subject to tax.
• Tax on Long Term Capital Gains exceeding Rs. 1 lakh at the rate of 10
  percent, without allowing any indexation benefit. However, all gains up
  to 31st January, 2018 will be grandfathered.
• Proposal to introduce tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual funds at the rate of 10 percent.
• Proposal to increase cess on personal income tax and corporation tax to 4 percent from present 3 percent.
• Proposal to roll out E-assessment across the country to almost eliminate person
  to person contact leading to greater efficiency and transparency in
  direct tax collection.
• Proposed changes in customs duty to promote creation of more jobs in the country and also to incentivise domestic value addition and Make in India in sectors such as food processing, electronics, auto components, footwear and furniture.

Source: PIB

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Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Finance

01-February-2017 13:57 IST

Budget gives a major push to Digital Economy; proposes No Cash Transaction above Rs 3 lakh

Government to launch schemes to promote BHIM app, Aadhar Enabled Payment System

Mission to be set-up to achieve a target of 2500 Cr digital transactions in 2017-18

Series of measures proposed to strengthen and regulate digital economy

In a bid to give a push to Digital Economy and weed-out corruption and black money, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley in his Budget Speech today said that the Government has decided that no transaction above Rs 3 lakh will be permitted in cash. Accepting a suggestion by Special Investigation Team on Black Money to ban cash transactions above Rs 3 lakhs, the Finance Minister has proposed an amendment to the Income-tax Act in the Finance Bill.

Presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in the Parliament, the Finance Minister said that the Government will launch two new Schemes to promote the usage of BHIM App i.e, Referral Bonus Scheme for individuals and a Cashback Scheme for merchants. BHIM App was launched to promote digital transactions and will unleash the power of mobile phones for digital payments and financial inclusion, The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley informed the House that 125 lakh people have adopted the BHIM app so far.

The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley also announced that Aadhar Pay, a merchant version of Aadhar Enabled Payment System, will be launched shortly. This will be specifically beneficial for those who do not have debit cards, mobile wallets and mobile phones. A Mission will be set-up with a target of 2,500 crore digital transactions for 2017-18 through UPI, USSD, Aadhar Pay, IMPS and debit cards. Banks have targeted to introduce additional 10 lakh new PoS terminals by March 2017. They will be encouraged to introduce 20 lakh Aadhar based PoS by September 2017.

Highlighting the Government’s strategy to clean the system through digital economy, Shri Jaitley said that it has a transformative impact in terms of greater formalisation of the economy and mainstreaming of financial savings into the banking system. This, in turn, is expected to energise private investment in the country through lower cost of credit. India is now on the cusp of a massive digital revolution, he added. The Finance Minister said that a shift to digital payments has huge benefits for the common man. The earlier initiative of the Government to promote financial inclusion and the JAM trinity were important precursors to the current push for digital transactions, the Finance Minister added.

In a bid to incentivize the digital transactions, the Finance Minister Shri Jaitley proposed that the presumptive income tax for small and medium tax payers whose turn-over is up to Rs 2 crore will be reduced from the present 8% of their turnover which is counted as presumptive income to 6% in respect of turnover which is received by non-cash means. This benefit will be applicable for transactions undertaken in the current year also, he added.

The Finance Minister also proposed to limit the cash expenditure allowable as deduction, both for revenue as well as capital expenditure, up to Rs 10,000. Similarly, the limit of cash donation which can be received by a Charitable Trust is being reduced from Rs 10,000/- to Rs 2000/-.

To promote cashless transactions, the Finance Minister in the Budget has proposed to exempt BCD, Excise/CV duty and SAD on miniaturised POS card reader for m-POS, micro ATM standards version 1.5.1, Finger Print Readers/Scanners and Iris Scanners. He also proposed to exempt parts and components for manufacture of such devices, so as to encourage domestic manufacturing of these devices.

To strengthen and regulate the digital economy, the Finance Minister has proposed to create a Payments Regulatory Board in the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) by replacing the existing Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems. The Committee on Digital Payments constituted by the Department of Economic Affairs has recommended structural reforms in the payment eco system, including amendments to the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. The Government will undertake a comprehensive review of this Act and bring about appropriate amendments, Finance Minister added.

To strengthen the digital payment infrastructure and grievance handling mechanisms, the Finance Minister said in his Budget Speech that the focus would be on rural and semi urban areas through Post Offices, Fair Price Shops and Banking Correspondents. He added that steps would be taken to promote and possibly mandate petrol pumps, fertilizer depots, municipalities, Block offices, road transport offices, universities, colleges, hospitals and other institutions to have facilities for digital payments, including BHIM App. A proposal to mandate all the Government receipts through digital means, beyond a prescribed limit, is under consideration. The Government will strengthen the Financial Inclusion Fund to augment resources for taking up these initiatives, the Finance Minister added.

In his Budget Speech, the Finance Minister informed that increased digital transactions will enable small and micro enterprises to access formal credit. He said that the Government will encourage

SIDBI to refinance credit institutions which provide unsecured loans, at reasonable interest rates, to borrowers based on their transaction history.

The Finance Minister assured the House that the Government will consider and work with various stakeholders for early implementation of the interim recommendations of the Committee of Chief Ministers on digital transactions.

Shri Jaitley said that the Government is considering the option of amending the Negotiable Instruments Act to ensure that the payees of dishonoured cheques are able to realise the payments.

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HRA deduction increased to Rs. 60,000 per annum; 40% of withdrawal under NPS to be tax exempt; additional exemption for housing loans.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents his third Union Budget. With an eye on supporting the small tax-payer and the small investor, the Minister announced a slew of schemes, and income tax exemptions.

As it happened:

12.41 p.m.: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tables the Union Budget 2016 and the Finance Bill.

12.40 p.m.: Rs. 1,060 crore revenue loss through direct tax proposals, and Rs. 20,670 crore revenue gain through indirect tax proposals. Revenue gain of Rs 19,600 crore in Union Budget 2016 proposals.

12.39 p.m.: 13 different cesses levied by various ministries with collections less than Rs.50 crore a year to be done away with.

12.38 p.m.: No Service Tax for houses built under 60 square metres.

12.35 p.m.: Excise duty on tobacco increased by 10-15 per cent.

12.34 p.m.: Committed to stable taxation regime. No more retrospective amendments.

12.29 p.m.: 4% high capacity tax for SUVs.

12.28 p.m.: Limited period compliance window for domestic taxpayers to declare undisclosed income. Declarations to have immunity from prosecutions.

12.26 p.m.: No changes have been made to existing income tax slabs.

12.25 p.m.: Infrastructure and agriculture cess to be levied.

12.23 p.m.: 1 per cent service charge on purchase of luxury cars over Rs. 10 lakh and in-cash purchase of goods and services over Rs. 2 lakh.

12.22 p.m.: Additional exemption of Rs. 50,000 for housing loans up to Rs. 35 lakh, provided cost of house is not above Rs. 50 lakh.

12.20 p.m.: 40% of withdrawal at the time of retirement under National Pension Scheme to be tax exempt.

12.19 p.m.: Tax holiday for startups for three of five years of setting up the company

12.13 p.m.: Lowering of Corporate IT rate for companies not exceeding Rs. 5 crore turnover to 25% plus surcharge.

12.09 p.m.: People with income less than Rs 5 lakh to get deduction of Rs 5,000, up from Rs 2,000 last year. HRA deduction up from Rs. 24,000 to Rs. 60,000 p.a.

12.08 p.m.: Rs. 100 crore for Deendayal Upadhyay’s birthday celebrations and Guru Gobind Singh 300th birth anniversary.

12.07 p.m.: Classification of expenditure as plan and non-plan to be done away with.

12.06 p.m.: Govt plans to spend Rs 19.78 lakh crore in 2016-17 — Rs 5.5 lakh crore under plan head, Rs 14.28 lakh crore under non-plan head.

12.06 p.m.: FIscal deficit at 3.5% of GDP in 2016-17.

12.04 p.m.: A bill on targeted delivery of financial services using Aadhar to be introduced.

12.03 p.m.: Amendment to the Companies Act to ensure speedy registration and boost start-ups.

12.02 p.m.: Rs. 900 crore for buffer stock of pulses.

12.01 p.m.: Dept of Disinvestment renamed as Dept of Investment and Public Asset Management.

12 noon: Direct Benefit Transfer for fertiliser subsidy.

11.59 a.m.: EPF at 8.33 per cent for new employees joining the scheme.

11.58 a.m.: Rs. 25,000 crore for recapitalisation of public sector banks. General insurance companies owned by the govt to be listed in stock exchanges.

11.56 a.m.: Amendmends to boost Asset Reconstruction Companies to manage NPAs of public sector banks.

11.55 a.m.: RBI Act to be amended to set up monetary policy committee.

11:53 a.m.: 100% FDI through FAPB route in marketing of food products produced and manufactured in India.

11.49 a.m.: Total outlay on infrastructure in 2016-17 is Rs. 2,21,246 crore

11.47 a.m.: In the power sector, the govt is drawing up a plan for 15-20 years to augment investment in nuclear power. Rs. 3,000 crore per annum for this.

11.45 a.m.: There are 160 airports and airstrips which can be revived.

11.44 a.m.: Motor Vehicles Act to be amended to enable entrepreneurship in the road transport sector.

11.43 a.m.: Total outlay for infrastructure is at Rs. 2.31 lakh crore.

11.42 a.m.: Rs. 97,000 crore for all roads. Total outlay on roads and rails will be Rs. 2.80 lakh crore. 10,000 km of national highways in 2016-17 and 50,000 km state highways to be converted to NH roads.

11.41 a.m.: More than 70,000 road projects were languishing at the beginning of the year. Nearly 85% of these projects have been put back on track.

11.39 a.m.: Small shops should be given the choice to remain open on all 7 days a week.

11.37 a.m.: Rs. 1,700 crore for 1500 multi-skill development centres.

11.35 a.m.: 10 public and 10 private educational institutions to be made world-class. Digital repository for all school leaving certificates and diplomas. Rs. 1,000 crore for higher education financing.

11.34 a.m.: Hub to support SC/ST entrpreneurs.

11.33 a.m.: National dialysis service programme under PPP model. LPG connection for women members of rural homes.

11.30 a.m.: Government to provide health insurance of upto Rs. 1 lakh per family; top up of Rs. 35,000 for people above 60 years. 3,000 stores to be opened for generic drugs.

11.30 a.m.: Total rural sector allocation Rs. 87,769 crore.

11.27 a.m.: Two schemes for digital literacy for rural India to cover 6 crore households in the next three years.

11.26 a.m.: Rs. 9,000 crore for Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.

11.25 a.m.: 5,542 villages have been electrified, more than the last three years combined.

11.24 a.m.: Rs. 38,500 crore for MNREGA. Highest ever for the rural employment scheme.

11.23 a.m.: Rs. 2.87 lakh crore for gram panchayats as per recommendation of 14th finance commission.

11.22 a.m.: Four schemes for animal welfare.

11.19 a.m.: Agricultural credit target of Rs. 9 lakh crore. Govt to allocate Rs 5,500 crore for crop insurance scheme.

11.19 a.m.: Unified e-platform for farmers to be inaugurated on Ambedkar’s birthday.

11.17 a.m.: Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana to bring 5 lakh acres under organic farming.

11.14 a.m.: 28.5 lakh hectares to be brought under irrigation.

11.13 a.m.: Govt will reorganise agricultural policy to double farmer income in five years.

11.11 a.m.: Jaitley announces the nine pillars of his Budget — Agriculture and farmers’ welfare, rural sector, social sector including healthcare, education, skills and job creation, infrastructure, financial sector reforms, ease of doing business, fiscal discipline, tax reforms to reduce compliance burden.

11.11 a.m.: New scheme for BPL families for gas connections. Staturtory backing for Aadhaar platform to ensure delivery of benefits.

11.10 a.m.: CAD is 1.4% of GDP.

11.10 a.m.: FY 16-17 will have the additional burden of implementing the VII pay commission and the defence OROP.

11.08 a.m.: FY 15-16 and 16-17 will be challenging for the government.

11.07 a.m.: Forex reserves are at the highest ever levels — $350 billion.

11.05 a.m.: GDP growth has accelerated to 7.6%. CPI inflation has come down to 5.4%.

11.05 a.m.: Mr. Jaitley says the Indian economy has held strong despite a global slowdown.

11 a.m.: Arun Jaitley rises to present the Budget.

10:46 am: Mr. Jaitley’s Budget speech to begin in 15 minutes.

10:43 am: Union Cabinet clears General Budget for 2016-17.

10:29 am: Cabinet meeting in Parliament ends.

10:05 am: The Sensex falls 59 points in early trade on reduced bets by cautious retail investors amid continued capital outflows by foreign funds ahead of the Budget. More…

9:53 am: Pre-Budget Cabinet meet to begin shortly.

9:40 am: Mr. Jaitley, MoS Jayant Sinha arrive in Parliament.

9:19 am: The stock markets don’t seem very enthused ahead of the Budget — Sensex opens 38.86 points lower, currently at 23,115.44.

9:10 am: The Budget may be given a dash of green with many environment-friendly measures to reduce the carbon footprint, official sources tell The Hindu. The budget is likely to provide incentives to encourage local manufacture and Research & Development (R&D) of electric vehicle components, including lithium-iron batteries.

9:00 am: About 8.5 crore employees whose retirement savings are managed by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) could get an option to transfer over a third of their EPF contributions to the National Pension System, regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority or PFRDA. Read more…

8:54 am: How well do you know your budget history? Here are 11 landmark Union Budgets that you should know about.

8:45 am: Here’s a ready reckoner for some of the terms that will be a part of Mr. Jaitley’s long speech, that some of us may not be familiar with.

8:30 am: How long will this year’s Budget speech be? Which Finance Minister holds the dubious honour of presenting the longest budget speech, in terms of word count? Here’s a clue: it was an 18,650-word speech given 25 years ago!

8:00 am: Budgets are about numbers and best understood using charts and graphics. In case you missed it, here are the highlights of the previous Budget, captured in eight interactive charts.

7:30 am: The event provides us an opportunity to reflect on the proposals and promises that were made during last year’s Budget. We looked at some of them and checked the status of their implementation. Here’s what we found.

7:00 am: Here’s some interesting information. For Budget 2016-17, the government invited suggestions from citizens through Twitter for the first time, even conducting a series of polls to gauge public priorities and expectations from the Budget.
Source: The Hindu

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All India Railwaymen’s Federation(AIRF), representing more than 1.3 million Railwaymen, has submitted significant suggestions to Hon’ble Finance Minister on General Budget which is going to be presented on Feb 29, 2015. Budget leaves great impact on the lives of Railwaymen and their families including pensioners. Therefore it becomes mandatory to bring core issues of Railwaymen at forefront so that Railwaymen find some relief…….

A.I.R.F.
All India Railwaymen’s Federation
4, State Entry Road,
New Delhi – 110055

No.AIRF/60

Dated: January 13, 2016

Hon’ble Finance Minister,
Ministry of Finance,
(Government of India),
New Delhi

Respected Sir,
Sub: Suggestions for the General Budget 2016-17

All India Railwaymen’s Federation(AIRF), representing more 1.3 million Railwaymen, wish to submit the following significant suggestions for consideration in the ensuing General Budget 2016-17:-

Provision of Rs.35,000 crore for implementation of VII CPC Report in the Railways – Indian Railways is broadly functioning as social entity; serving the vast spectrum of the society, majority of whom belongs to lower income group. Railways, is therefore, facing financial crunch on account of little flexibility in freight and fare. To implement report of the VII CPC Indian Railways require Rs.35,000 crore during the coming financial year 2016-17. Keeping in view total scenario and financial health of the Indian Railways as also the aspirations of the people of this country to modernize the Railways, provision of at least Rs.35,000 crore should be made for implementation of VII CPC report for the Railwaymen.

2. Exemption of the Railwaymen from the purview of National Pension System(NPS) – Successive Hon’ble Minister for Railways, accepting the established fact that the Indian Railways is the second line of defence of this country, and the Railwaymen have always proved their worth during all wars, may be 1962, 1965 and 1971, have already recommended for exemption of the Railwaymen from the purview of National Pension System(NPS). Since Railways is an operational department, Railwaymen have to work round-the-clock throughout the year and also have to stay away from their families for long period time while performing duties in the areas where adequate facilities are not available. Railwaymen have to work throughout the year in all weather conditions and their duties are of such complex and critical as well as hazardous in nature and they have to sacrifice their lives, while performing duties, in large number every year, as already accepted by the High Power Committee constituted by the Ministry of Railways under the Chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar. Therefore, Railwaymen deserve exemption from the purview of National Pension System(NPS), irrespective of their date of appointment on par with armed forces. It would also be pertinent to point out here that, the Indian Railways is the only government department which is shouldering total burden of payment of Pension/Family from its own resources.

3. Raising the limit of exemption from Income Tax deduction – Despite several announcements, one of the major issues in the election manifesto, limit of exemption from Income Tax, could not be raised during the last General Budget(2015-16) as per aspiration of the people of this country. It would not be out of context to submit that, value of the Rupees has substantially devaluated over the years, as a result of which, Dearness Allowance, which is paid to compensate this devaluation of money, has already crossed 119% w.e.f. 1st July, 2015 and is further likely to be increased during this year. This largely justifies that, limit of exemption from Income Tax deduction should be raised to at least 5 lakh per annum. AIRF, therefore, urges that, this aspect needs to be considered in the ensuing General Budget.

4. Provision of adequate allocation of funds for Education and Healthcare – Education and medical facilities in the market have become quite costly, as such gradually going out of reach of the common man because of business type educational institutes and private hospitals. Public Education System and medical facilities have drastically deteriorated over the year due to paucity of funds being allocated under these heads. This is also creating huge imbalance in the Indian Society. There is, therefore, urgent need of augmenting education and healthcare for the common man of this country, for which allotment of funds under these heads needs to be raised to 6% and 4% respectively of the GDP.

5. Allotment of funds for Skilled India Mission of the Hon’ble Prime Minister – A number of railway stations are proposed to be developed for skill development of the youth, as already announced by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, for which, substantial fund would be required. Since this is a National Mission and the Indian Railways is not in a position to bear this burden due to financial crunch, adequate fund needs to be allotted for this purpose in the ensuing General Budget.

6. Budgetary support for modernization and augmentation of Indian Railways – Indian Railways is the cheapest and most convenient mode of transport for common man of this country and is virtually lifeline of the nation. To fulfill the aspirations of the rail users, services of the Indian Railways need to be augmented to run this organization more safely and efficiently. It may be appreciated that the Indian Railways is a government organization. As such, Dividend and Lease Charges need not be recovered from the Railways, rather budgetary support, which has drastically declined over the year, should be increased adequately for modernization and augmentation of the Indian Railways. It has been observed that, Service Charges are also being taken on many materials and components manufactured or purchased by the Railways. Being government organization, Service Charges must not be taken from the Indian Railways.

7. Implementation of “Own Your House Scheme” for the Railwaymen – Indian Railways is employing more than 13 lakh employees who work round-the-clock in all weathers throughout the year. Only a marginal number of railway staff is provided with railway quarters while others have to starve badly for residential accommodation or are forced to reside as tenant. Former Hon’ble Minister for Railways, considering this apathy of the railwaymen, had made announcement in the Rail Budget regarding “Own Your House Scheme”, which has not seen light of the day due to paucity of funds. AIRF, therefore, urges that, necessary funds be allotted for this purpose, which will not only help in providing accommodation to needy railwaymen, but also in rapid growth in construction industry and boost the GDP of the country.

8. Refund of Pension Charges born by the Indian Railways – Indian Railways is the only government organization which takes care of entire Pension/Family Pension and Retirement benefits to the Railway employees, whereas for the whole lot of government employees, Government of India owns responsibility. At present, Indian Railways is disbursing around Rs.28,000 in the form of retirement benefits, including Pension/Family Pension to their employees and their dependents. It would be appreciated, if this money should be refunded to Indian Railways to improve economic health, and by this way there will be at least some provision for improvement in the safety standard and passenger care of the Indian Railways.

9. Refund of subsidy – Indian Railways is spending around Rs.26,000 crore for the subsidized fare, being given to the passengers. It is cross subsidy from freight to passengers. It would be in all appropriateness if this amount should be refunded to Indian Railways, so that it could take various important projects pending since years.

AIRF earnestly hope that its aforementioned suggestions would be given due consideration while preparing ensuing General Budget 2016-17 by the government.

With kind regards!

Yours faithfully,
sd/-
(Shiva Gopal Mishra)
General Secretary

Source: AIRF

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On-Board Entertainment on Select Shatabdi Trains

The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has said that Indian Railways’ Delhi Division is taking up a project for introducing on-board entertainment on select Shatabdi trains on license fee basis. He said,depending on the response, the facility will be extended on all Shatabdi trains.

Presenting the Railway Budget 2015-16 in Parliament today Shri Prabhu said, Mobile phone charging facilities would be provided in general class coaches and the number of charging facilities would be increased in sleeper class coaches.

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‘SMS Alert’ Service for Arrival/Departure Time of Trains

The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu has said that it is proposed to introduce an “SMS Alert” service to inform passengers in advance the updated arrival/departure time of trains at starting or destination stations. Similarly SMS alert would be sent 15/30 minutes in advance of arrival of the train at the destination.

Presenting the Railway Budget 2015-16 in Parliament today Shri Prabhu said, a centrally managed Railway Display Network is expected to be introduced in over 2,000 stations over the next two years which will aid in providing information on train arrival/departure, reservations, general and emergency messages and also any other information of interest to citizens. This facility will promote “Digital India Campaign” and also unlock huge advertising revenue potential.

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AIRF has sent suggestions for General Budget to Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley.

A.I.R.F.
All India Railwaymen’s Federation
4, State Entry Road, New Delhi – 110055

No.AIRF/60

Dated: January 20, 2015

Hon’ble Finance Minister,
Ministry of Finance,
(Government of India),
New Delhi

Dear Sir,

Sub: Suggestions for the General Budget 2015-16

All India Railwaymen’s Federation(AIRF), representing more 1.3 million Railwaymen, being the largest and oldest organization of the Railwaymen in India, wish to put-forth following important suggestions to be considered favourably while finalizing General Budget proposals for the Financial Year 2015-16:-

1. Railwaymen are always termed as “Second Line of Defence” in our country. While National Pension Scheme(NPS) was introduced w.e.f. 01.01.2004 for all the Central Government Employees, however, Defence personnel have since been exempted from this scheme and are covered by the Old Traditional Pension Scheme/Family Pension Scheme with full social security.

AIRF is also struggling hard from the day-one to exempt the Railwaymen also from the NPS, and ultimately the then Hon’ble Minister for Railways Shri Mallikarjun Kharge on persuasions of the AIRF had recommended this issue to the then Hon’ble Finance Minister vide his letter No.2012/F(E)III/1/4-Part dated 29th March, 2014. AIRF, therefore, urges that, necessary provision to this effect may be made in the ensuing General Budget, so as to cover all the Railwaymen, irrespective of their date of appointment under Old Pension/Family Pension Scheme.

2. The BJP in the election campaign of the 16th Lok Sabha had repeatedly assured to raise ceiling limit of Income Tax adequately. It may be appreciated that, due to market inflation, the actual value of the “Rupee” has devaluated to the greatest extent as the Dearness Allowance being paid to compensate the devaluation the rupee has already crossed 107%. Therefore, it would be highly appreciated, if ceiling limit of the Income Tax is raised to at least Rs.5 lakh.

3. Education and medical facilities are gradually going out of reach of the common man because of business type institutions and private hospitals. The public education system and medical facilities have deteriorated over the years, due to inadequacy of funds being allocated under these heads. There being urgent need of augmenting education and medical facilities for the common man, allotment of funds under these heads needs to be raised to 6% and 4% of the GDP respectively.

4. In the wake of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India’s announcement at Varanasi on 25th December, 2014, while celebrating “Good Governance Day”, that different railway stations of the Indian Railways shall be augmented for the purpose of skill development, adequate fund allocation needs to be made for this purpose, so that necessary facilities are created on the earmarked railway stations for this purpose.

5. In the Rail Budget for the year 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, the then Hon’ble Minister for Railways made announcement for establishment of Medical/Technical Institutions on certain important Railheads, but on account of paucity of funds, these welfare schemes could not see the day of light. Therefore, with a view to augment educational facilities of medical and technical education, some funds may be provided from the General Budget for this purpose.

6. Indian Railways being the lifeline of the country urgently need adequate budgetary support from the General Budget to augment the services as also to run this organization more safely and efficiently. It may also be appreciated that, since Indian Railways is a government organization, no Dividend and Lease Charges should be recovered from the Railways.

7. Indian Railways employees more than 13 lakh employees, and the former Hon’ble Minister for Railways had also announced “Own Your House Scheme”. Therefore, that scheme should be launched, so as to provide them house well before their retirement.

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