M A I N   N E W S

Govt raises ceiling on poll expenses
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 21
Just weeks before five states go to the polls, the government today decided to raise the ceiling of expenditure by the candidates in both Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections.

The Union Cabinet at its meeting here decided that candidates in the Lok Sabha elections could now spend up to Rs 25 lakh and those in the Assembly elections Rs 10 lakh.

The ceilings have been raised from Rs 15 lakh and Rs 6 lakh, respectively, Cabinet spokesperson and Health and Family Welfare Minister Sushma Swaraj said here. However, the ceiling in Delhi would be Rs 9 lakh and in Mizoram Rs 5 lakh (from Rs 3 lakh).

The notification for the raising of the expenditure limit would be issued soon for the states going to polls in the coming weeks.

For the other states also, the expenditure ceiling has been fixed according to the size of the constituencies. In case of Jammu and Kashmir, it would be done by the State Government by amending the respective election rules.

The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took this decision after holding consultations with the Election Commission officials, sources said.

The commission apparently agreed to the proposal for hiking the poll expenditure as the price index had jumped since the last revision was made in 1998. The Union Cabinet agreed to the figures suggested by the Election Commission.

The Cabinet also decided to promulgate an ordinance to allow the Delimitation Commission to start the process of readjusting Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies based on the 2001 Census, instead of the 1991, without affecting the number of seats allocated to the states in legislative bodies.

The Cabinet also decided to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950, so as to appoint district election officers in the union territories also.

The Cabinet also decided to amend the Central Sales Tax Act,1956, to finetune it with the directions of the Supreme Court which include evolving a mechanism to resolve the inter-state disputes and avoid imposition of the double burden of tax on the assessees.

The amendments, as suggested by the Supreme Court, will include a provision for referring to the CST Appellate Authority for adjudication only such disputes which relate both to inter-state sales and consignment/stock transfers.

As per the amendments, cleared by the Cabinet, the cases involving more than one state government in a dispute would be included for reference to the appellate authority. The imposition of double burden of tax on the assessees is to be avoided and the proceedings other than appeal such as revision will also be entertained by the Appellate Authority.