New Delhi: President Pranab Mukherjee, as advised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has accepted Manohar Parrikar’s resignation from the Council of Ministers, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution.

As advised by Prime Minister Modi, the President has directed that Arun Jaitley, Cabinet Minister, shall be assigned the charge of the Ministry of Defence, in addition to his existing portfolios.

This development as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to form the government in Goa under the leadership of Parrikar, who will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister tomorrow.

Governor Mridula Sinha invited Parrikar to form the next government in the coastal state last night after he submitted a letter of support of 21 legislators. Three MLAs of the Goa Forward Party, three of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and two Independents have pledged support to Parrikar.

The BJP, which won 13 seats in the 40-member Goa Assembly, managed to garner support from other parties and Independents to attain majority under Parrikar.

The Congress got 17 seats in the recently concluded polls.
ANI

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Pessimism gripped central government employees with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley making no reference to the anomalies related to 7th Pay Commission in his Budget speech.

“Most of the central government employees were eagerly waiting for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to make some announcement on minimum wages. But after Mr Jaitley’s speech ended without mentioning anything about the increase in the minimum wage, most of us were upset,” NJCA convenor Shiv Gopal Mishra said while speaking to India.com.

“Ab toh asha ki kiran kaheen naheen hai, sirf nirasha hee nirasha hai (We are losing hope. We can only see disappointment),” the leading unionist further added. NJCA has proactively been involved in talks with Centre, seeking revision of minimum salary from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000, among other demands.

Although Mishra indicated that the government may not backtrack on their stance over minimum salary, he claimed that the allowances would be hiked by April 1. “There are chances the government hikes the allowances from April 1. However, we would launch our protests against the government if they fail to revise the minimum salary,” he added.

The 7th Pay Commission was approved by Union Cabinet on July 1, 2016. The date of implementation was fixed as January 1, 2016. The central government employees were provided the hiked salaries from the month of July, along with arrears of six months. However, the hike was related only to the basic component of their pay. The increase in allowances was upheld, due to the anomalies raised by employee unions.

7th Pay Commission report affected nearly 47 lakh central government employees, along with 53 lakh pensioners. Implementation of the report has revised the minimum salary from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000. The maximum salary has been capped at Rs 2,50,000.

The total salary hike sanctioned through 7th Pay Commission is 23 per cent. However, the central government employees, so far, have received a hike of 14.3 per cent, which is related to the basic pay. The remaining 9 per cent of the hike is related to the allowances component.

Although the government has indicated that the allowance hike would be implemented by March, there is no word whether the central government employees would be provided arrears on allowances, akin to the manner in which they were provided on basic pay. Providing arrears to central government employees, keeping January 1, 2016 as the base, would create significant amount of burden on the exchequer.

Source: India

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New Delhi: The Cabinet is likely to consider this week fixing February 1 as date of presentation of the budget after the Election Commission gave its nod in light of upcoming Assembly elections in five states.

Having decided to advance the budget presentation by a month, the government took the line that it should not be presented in the middle of Assembly poll in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

So, it consulted the Election Commission, which has concurred with the finance ministry’s view that it is an annual financial statement and can come anytime of the government’s choice, officials said.

The Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to meet on Wednesday or Thursday to decide on the date for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to present the budget for 2017-18.

The Cabinet on September 21 had in-principle decided to end the colonial-era tradition of presenting the Union budget on last day of February and advance it by about a month to help complete the legislative approval for annual spending plans and tax proposals before beginning of the new financial year on April 1.

“The reason we wanted to advance the date was that we want the entire budgetary exercise to be over and the Finance Bill to be passed and implemented from April 1 onwards rather than June because then the monsoon sets in and effectively, the expenditures start in October,” Jaitley had stated last week.

Stating that the government wants expenditure to start in April itself, he had said there are five state Assembly elections lined up in 2017.

“So, we are just trying to co-ordinate that you do not have to announce the Budget bang in the middle of an election date. It should be reasonably before that or after that,” he had said.

The finance ministry had been proposing that the Budget presentation be fixed for February 1 and the entire exercise be completed by March 24.

It wanted the Budget Session of Parliament to begin before January 25 and go in for a three-week break between February 10-15 before reconvening between March 10-15 to complete the legislative exercise.

PTI

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said he was not worried about fiscal deficit and government would be able to meet its target despite additional outgo towards the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission.

He admitted however that the impact of implementing the pay commission’s recommendations, which will result in an additional annual burden of Rs 1.02 lakh crore on exchequer, would last for two to three years.

“I am not particularly worried about the fiscal deficit target,” he said while replying to questions on the impact of the recommendations on public finances at the HT Leadership summit.

He further said that besides achieving the target, the government has also been able to improve the quality of fiscal deficit. The government proposes to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.9 per cent of GDP in 2015-16, 3.5 per cent in 2016-17 and 3 per cent by 2017-18.

“If you achieve a fiscal deficit by either cutting down expenditure or withholding tax returns, then you may strictly have statistical figure, but the quality of the fiscal deficit will always be suspected…we have concentrated on the quality of the fiscal deficit and we will probably be able to maintain it,” he added.

As regards the impact of the Pay Commission award to central government employees, Jaitley said the normal rule is that the expenditure on salary and pension should be 2.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.

The ratio will deteriorate in the initial years with the implementation, he said.

However, “…as the base of the GDP increases, by the third or the fourth year, the spikes come down and (thereafter) you reasonably reach that 2.5 per cent figure back… These pressures will be for the next 2-3 years,” the minister added.

PTI

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New Delhi: The GST rate will be “much more diluted” than the speculated 27 per cent and the final rate will be worked out by the GST Council, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

“I straightaway concede that 27 per cent would be very high…after this 27 per cent (Revenue Neutral Rate) was born, the states and the Centre have decided to keep alcohol out,” he said in a reply to GST Bill debate in the Lok Sabha.

“We have decided to keep petroleum out and every state finance minister is not interested in imposing higher taxes on its own people, and neither the central government. Therefore, this figure (RNR) is going to much more diluted compared to the figure (27 per cent) which has been mentioned,” he said.

Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) is the rate at which there will be no revenue loss to the states after GST implementation.

“These are the figures which would be decided by GST Council,” he added.

The GST Council will have Jaitley as its Chairman and comprise two-third of members from states and one-third from the Centre.

GST is termed as the biggest indirect tax reform since 1947. A single rate GST will replace central excise, state VAT, entertainment tax, octroi, entry tax, luxury tax and purchase tax on goods and services to ensure seamless transfer of goods and services.

Allaying concerns raised by some of Lok Sabha members regarding the 27 per cent RNR speculation, Jaitley said “it is going to be too high and therefore the cost and prices itself will go up”.

He clarified to the House that the number was not given by the government or the GST Council but by a particular organisation in its own internal assessment.

“It got leaked out and somebody said it is 26.8. so that is how this figure of 27 per cent was born,” he said.

However, without hazarding a guess as to what the final GST rate would be, Jaitley said, the 13th Finance Commission had suggested 18 per cent as a possible figure.

PTI

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Source: [http://www.govemployees.in/7th-pay-commission-recommendations-likely-this-year-fm/]

Text of news at Day & Night News

7th Pay Commission recommendations likely this year : Jaitley

Read at: Day & Night News

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A survey carried out by industry body Assocham has found that a majority of salaried employees want Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to increase the income tax exemption in the forthcoming Budget.

A hike in income tax exemption from Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh will lead to savings of up to Rs. 5,000 for those who fall in the Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh tax bracket. Those in the Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh tax bracket will save up to Rs. 10,000, while those in the highest tax bracket can save up to Rs. 15,000.

Any increase in exemption in income tax would leave more money in the hands of people and will increase their purchasing power, Assocham said.

If Mr Jaitley hikes income tax exemption limit, it will be for the second time in two years that salaried employees will get a relief on taxes.

The other big expectation is about exemption on housing loans. 78 per cent of those surveyed want interest exemption on home loans to go up to Rs. 5 lakh from Rs. 2 lakh.

Property prices in the country have gone up sharply over the years and many individuals have to pay large amounts as interest for home loans. Exemption on interest on home loan was hiked by Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 2 lakh in the previous Budget.

A large number of respondents in the survey also voted for hiking exemption limit under section 80C of the Income Tax Act; the section makes investments worth Rs. 1.5 lakh on saving instruments such as fixed deposits, national saving certificates and public provident funds exempt from taxes.

“Hike in exemption limits will boost the savings rate in the Indian economy to 35 per cent of GDP from below 30 per cent currently,” said Assocham secretary general D S Rawat.

88 per cent of respondents want the government to reduce the record-high duty on gold import. Import duty on gold was hiked to 10 per cent in 2013 when the economy was struggling with a high current account deficit and volatile rupee.

Nearly 82 per cent of the salaried class expects a separate deduction of Rs. 50,000 for the payment towards annuity or pension plans. Deduction of the amount paid towards annuity plans u/s 80CCC and NPS u/s 80CCD come under the threshold limit of section 80C currently.

Around 55 per cent of the survey respondents were between 25 and 29 year-old; 26 per cent fell between 30 and 39 years; 16 per cent were between 40 and 49 years. The survey was carried out among employees from 18 broad sectors, with maximum share contributed by employees from IT/ITes sector (17 per cent). It was conducted across Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh, Dehradun, etc. About 500 salaried employees from the different sectors were covered by the survey from each city on an average.

Read at NDTV

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