 |
|
|
Common man irked by withdrawal tax
News Analysis
Hike in outlay for drinking water project
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MoD asked to clear stand on Air Marshal
Central police bodies get lion’s share
Dayakar appointed Ambassador
to Jordan
|
|
Common man irked by withdrawal tax
New Delhi, February 28 “Right now I am not clear on what the Budget holds for me,” said Ms Raj Awasthy, a retired economics lecturer, while reacting to the Budget, being called a pro-employee, good-for-the-salaried class proposal. “TV reports are saying that tea leaves, refined edible oil, LPG and some other items will cost less. That appears to be a happy proposal for the middle class. But when I get down to filing my tax returns is when I will know the exact implications of this year’s Budget. Right now, I know as a woman my tax liability will come down.” However, it is the withdrawal tax that is troubling her the most. “ This proposal is ridiculous. What I would like to know is since when has the common man started keeping black money in banks, as was informed by the Finance Minister in his speech while proposing tax on every withdrawal of Rs 10,000. Black money is never kept in banks. I may need to withdraw my money for an emergency, an illness or a function in the family. Which means that first I have to pay taxes on the interest that I will be earning on the amount and then pay tax while withdrawing it. This is not fair,” adds Ms Awasthy. “This proposal will never be able to get through during the debate in Parliament and Mr Chidambaram will have to roll back the decision or maybe increase the limit,” says Ms Richa Gupta, an organisational
behavioural consultant with MNCs. Her question, however, is to know what will be the fate of premium she had been paying on her life insurance. “ This was a saving for me. I opted for life insurance primarily for the rebate I was getting on its premium,” she adds. Most people are still not clear on how to react on the rise in basic exemption limit and lowering of tax slabs as they feel that the government will find one way or the other to neutralise it “Withdrawal of standard deduction as proposed in the Budget may be one such way. By and large, I presume change in direct taxes will benefit me and my wife and decrease our tax liabilities,” says Mr Gyanendra Gupta, an executive with a leading financial company. “The proposal to raise basic tax exemption limit seems like music to my ears. The proposal to raise the basic tax exemption limit and lower tax slabs will reduce tax liabilities for salaried people earning up to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum by Rs 24,000,” says an Army officer, while adding that introduction of 0.1 per cent tax on cash withdrawals of Rs 10,000 was not fair, “Especially when it is my own money,” he adds. “What I understand is that whereas earlier, a person earning Rs 2.5 lakh annually had a tax liability of Rs 49,000 as Rs 19,000 tax on income up to Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 30,000 at 10 per cent on income between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh, it will now be reduced to Rs 25,000 as Rs 1 lakh has been exempted, Rs 5,000 is tax at 10 per cent on Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh and 20 per cent for Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh, coming to a total of Rs 25,000 only,” says Mr Vineet Jain, a government employee. |
|
Defence spending gap closes
Sridhar K. Chari
Riding on capital outflows on big ticket items like the Hawk 100 Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) and the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, the spending gap between the defence budget estimates and the actual expenditure has closed during the previous financial year, after a period of four budgets in which thousands of crores were returned unspent by the Defence Ministry.
Finance
Minister P. Chidambaram, noting that the high allocation of Rs 77,000 crore for defence in 04-05 (more than 28 per cent over the previous year
actual of Rs 60,066 crore) was intended to “catch up with the backlog of expenditure not provided for,” added that the revised estimates match the budget estimates “after a gap.” Indeed, the budget tables show matching revised estimates of Rs 43,517 crore and Rs 33,483 on the revenue and capital side respectively. Of course, we will have to wait for the ‘Actuals’ figure, but that may well be a close match. The budget estimate for 05-06 is pegged at Rs 83,000 crore — a modest increase of 7.79 per cent. Significantly, he has kept the capital expenditure high, budgeting Rs 34,375 crore. Outflows on major acquisitions will continue. Last year’s figure was actually more than a 100 per cent increase over the 03-04 figure of Rs 16,906 crore on the capital account. Interestingly, during the NDA years, even the revenue account was seeing unspent money. Delayed capital acquisitions are an obvious reason for unspent money on the capital account. The largest amount which came back was in 02-03, when against an estimate of Rs 65,000 crore, Rs 9338 crore came back. The whopping jump of 28 per cent is one of the largest in recent years. The previous big jump in defence spending was 18 per cent in 99-00 - the Kargil year. The lowest jump was in 02-03, when
it increased by a mere 2.57 per cent, with important modernisation/acquisition plans hanging fire.
03-04 saw a jump of Rs 7.67 per cent. What about defence spending as a percentage of GDP? In 03-04, Rs 60,066 crore is about 2.3 per cent of the GDP. As for Rs 77,000 crore, it may well have touched the magic 3 per cent of GDP mark — using the 03-04 advanced estimate for the GDP of 04-05 gives us 3.08 per cent. It is likely to drop back now into the steady 2 % plus maintained over most of the decade. Total plan and non-plan expenditure for 05-06 is pegged at Rs 5,14,344 crore. With defence spending pegged at Rs 83,000 crore, out of every
rupee that the government spends, 16.13 paise will go to defending the country. (A figure that normally varies between 14 and 16 paise). With the government only recently initiating the move to acquire 126 multi-role fighters for the Indian Air Force (IAF), it is unlikely that this has already been budgeted for in 05-06. Even as the IAF hopes that this is one acquisition that will move quickly, the services in general can hope for continued monies to shore up defence in what is still a highly challenging strategic environment. |
|
|
Hike in outlay for drinking water project
New Delhi, February 28 He said all water schemes had now been brought under the mission. The minister said 31,355 rural habitations had been provided drinking water facilities this year. He said total sanitation campaign, which covers 452 districts at present, would be extended to all districts in the country. Mr Chidambaram said only 30 per cent of the rural households had access to safe sanitation facilities. He announced an allocation of Rs 630 crore for the sanitation campaign in 2005-06. The minister said Rs 100 crore had been allotted to the pilot project for the repair, renovation and restoration of water bodies. The pilot project, covering 16 districts in nine states, would include nearly 700 water bodies. He said Rs 180 crore had been provided in 2005-06 to implement the recommendations of the task force which had studied the problem of floods. |
|
MoD asked to clear stand on Air Marshal
New Delhi, February 28 “What is this, an eyewash, if he is guilty he cannot get it (promotion), if not, he will get it,” a Bench of Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice P.P. Naolekar told Solicitor-General (SG) G.E. Vahanvati. The SG said Air Marshal Masand, who had retired in January last year, would be taken back but not given any assignment. He would be “out” of the IAF, Mr Vahanvati said, adding that he would, however, get all financial benefits. On the previous hearing, Mr Vahanvati had said the IAF had decided to back him on a “supernumerary” post after the matter was discussed with IAF chief S.P. Tyagi and Defence Secretary. Today the SG told the court that the promotion board had found certain
irregularities allegedly committed by him with regard to his birth certificate in 1999. “This has been pointed by a member of the board and the government feels strongly about it,” he said. Air Marshal Masand had produced a birth certificate in 2002, while it was established in 1999 that it had been destroyed in a fire in Quetta in Pakistan, before his family had migrated to India during Partition, the court was informed. The court directed the SG to seek clear instructions from the government in this regard. “There was an attempt to keep him out, mislead the (Delhi) high court. You should examine the issue as we cannot allow the entire force to be maligned merely because of some officers,” the court said. |
|
Central police bodies get lion’s share
New Delhi, February 28 The allocation to this vital ministry, which includes the Cabinet, has seen a 15.3 per cent increase in its allocation over last year’s allocation of Rs 14,744.97 crore. In an apparent bid to deal with the Maoist threat from Nepal more effectively, the government has increased the budgetary provisions of the SSB by Rs 172.43 crore from last years allocation of Rs 360.49 crore, an increase of 47.83 per cent. This border guarding force detailed along the Indo-Nepal border from Uttaranchal to Sikkim and is also detailed for internal security duties in the North-East, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh, etc. The government has proposed an increase in the provisions for all Central Police Organisations, including BSF, CRPF, NSG, CISF and Assam Rifles. The budgetary provisions for CPOs stand at Rs 12,552.20 crore for 2005-06 as against previous year’s allocation of Rs 10,756.89 crore. While the CRPF has got an allocation of Rs 2,700.40 crore, the BSF has got Rs 3221.12 crore, ITBP (Rs 560.65 crore), CISF (Rs 975.69 crore) and Assam Rifles (Rs 1,020.63 crore). The government has also increased the non-plan funds for the erection of barbed wire fencing and construction of roads along the Indo-Pakistan border from Rs 155.36 crore to Rs 233.05 crore and along the Indo-Bangladesh border from Rs 510.11 crore to Rs 631.65 crore. The allocation is also meant for the management of other borders, creation of infrastructure, Indo-China border and Indo-Myanmar Border and induction of hi-tech surveillence on Indo-Pak border, Indo-Bangladesh border and other borders as also construction of border outposts by various Central para-military forces. There is also a whopping increase of Rs 197.27 crore in the budgetary provisions for the civil defence force with the Finance Ministry proposing to increase the allocations from a mere Rs 16.11 crore to Rs 213.38 crore. Despite the Home Ministry speaking loud about the need for better disaster management centres after the devastation caused by tsunami waves the Budget has a measely allocation of Rs 75.93 crore for disaster management works, which include Rs 75.88 crore for relief on account of natural disasters and Rs 0.05 crore for disaster management in the North-East areas. |
|
Dayakar appointed Ambassador
to Jordan
New Delhi, February 28 In two other ambassadorial appointments announced by the MEA today, Mr Diljit Singh Pannun has been appointed India’s Ambassador to Madagascar in succession to Mr Sibabrata Tripathi, while Mr Vishnu Namdeo Hade has been appointed High Commissioner to Botswana in succession to Mr L.T. Muana. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Videos
