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A Tribune Special
Protecting women: Legal volunteers can help |
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Introduction of GST Profile On Record
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A Tribune Special The essence of financial accountability consists in holding the government to account for the performance of its part of the compact. Accordingly, governments world over have been placing increasing emphasis on performance rather than on mere raising of revenue and its spending. In line with this global trend, there has been a paradigm shift in the discourse on public financial management in India in recent years that has witnessed enhanced emphasis on performance for results of the expenditure of public resources. The introduction of the system of outcome budgeting from the Union Budget for 2004-05 must be considered a significant initiative taken by the Union Government for providing assurance of value for money to the stakeholders. Though the system of preparation of performance budgets had been in vogue since the late Sixties, the performance budgets prepared and presented by the Ministries could at best be described as putative budgets which neither enthused the stakeholders nor served the purpose of holding the government. The 2004 initiative has made it incumbent on the ministries to present, in a structured manner, an outcome budget for the forthcoming financial year that correlates the proposed outlays with the anticipated outcomes and also the actual performance of the preceding year showing the amounts spent and the outcomes achieved thereby. The outcome budgets are required to be made available soon after the presentation of the government budget and serve as a valuable input for the scrutiny of each Ministry’s budget by its Departmentally-Related Standing Committee. Another initiative that remained unnoticed for a long time was an innocuous sounding provision made in the financial rules prescribing the duties of the Ministry’s Secretary as its Chief Accounting Authority (CAA). Although the Ministry’s Secretary had been declared as its CAA in 1976, a new provision made in the revised financial rules issued in 2005 defined his duties and responsibilities in that capacity for the first time. In a nutshell, the Secretary has been made accountable for the effective, efficient, economical and transparent management use of the Ministry’s budget for the achievements of the programme objectives while complying with performance standards. This is akin to the role of his counterpart in the United Kingdom, who has a personal responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the public finances, for the prudent and economical administration, for the avoidance of waste and for the effective use of all available resources. Alongside the duties and responsibilities of the Ministry’s Financial Adviser (widely, but wrongly, considered the abominable no-man of the Ministry) have also been redefined making him an active player in the pursuit of the Ministry’s objectives. Continuing this trend towards accounting for the use of public resources, the government has recently introduced the system of results framework document which each Ministry is required to prepare soon after the approval of its annual budget. The document requires the Ministry to precisely define its ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ and provide a summary of the most important results that it expects to achieve during the financial year. The two main purposes of the document are (a) to move the focus of the Ministry from process-orientation to results-orientation; and (b) to provide an objective and fair basis to evaluate Ministry’s overall performance at the end of the year. A defining feature of the results framework document is its ‘ownership’ not merely by the Ministry’s Secretary but also by the Minister in charge of the Ministry both of whom are required to sign the document. This ensures the necessary civil service and political commitment to the achievement of the results envisaged in the document. Thus, the results-framework document becomes a record of understanding between a Minister representing the people’s mandate, and the Secretary of the Ministry responsible for implementing this mandate. This document contains not only the agreed objectives, policies, programmes, projects and activities but also success indicators and targets to measure progress in implementing them. As a measure of transparency, the document is required to be placed on the Ministry’s website. The results framework document is approved by the Cabinet Secretary. The system provides for quarterly reporting to the Cabinet Secretary and a half-yearly review by a High Powered Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary which will submit its report to the Prime Minister with suggestions for possible course corrections where necessary. The Annual Report is to be placed before the Union Cabinet. Having recognised that no Ministry is an island and in many cases clearance/concurrence of other Ministries is needed for implementation of its programmes, the results framework document requires the Ministry to spell out the precise performance requirements from other Ministries in quantifiable, specific and measurable terms that are critical for delivering the results. A logical corollary to this should be the statement of Ministry’s obligations towards other Ministries in its results framework document. For example, the results framework document of the Ministry of Environment and Forests should include, as one of its key indicators, its response time to the projects that may be posed to it for environmental clearance. The results framework document also requires the Ministry to develop similar documents for its subordinate offices, attached offices, and autonomous bodies and this is a mandatory ingredient of the document. However, very often the Ministry’s programmes are implemented through the public sector undertakings. A system of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) already exists whereby the administrative Ministry and the public sector undertaking spell out their mutual obligations for the achievement of the targets of the public sector undertaking under different measurable criteria like the financial, personnel, physical, environmental and other parameters. The MoU should be harmonised with the results framework document. The government’s financial rules prescribe a similar system of MoU between the administrative Ministry and the autonomous bodies that receive annual grants of Rs 5 crore or more. These MoUs should also be harmonised with the Ministry’s result framework document. In addition, back-to-back results framework documents should be prescribed for other autonomous bodies and voluntary organisations that are funded by the government. This has become crucial in view of the increasing trend towards direct remission of Central funds to the implementing agencies like the Panchayati Raj Institutions for programme delivery. There is also a dichotomy since, under the government’s financial rules, a period of one year reckoned from the close of the financial year is allowed to the grantee institutions to submit the certificate of utilisation of government assistance. Thus, for an amount paid to an institution, say, in October 2010, the certificate of utilisation is due only by March 2012, i.e. long after the period of the Ministry’s results framework document for 2010-11. This dichotomy needs to be resolved. This is not all. A large number of Central government schemes are implemented through the state governments, which often depend on their own autonomous bodies and voluntary organisations for programme delivery. The challenge is to get the state governments on board without eroding the autonomy of the state governments. Ideally, the states should be sensitised and, if necessary, incentivised to implement similar system, which will improve their own performance and accountability. The system of results framework document is an idea whose time is definitely overdue but it will be interesting to see how it works in practice given the current administrative structures with their numerous checks and balances and the multiple and multi-type agencies involved in programme
delivery. The writer is a former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor-General of India
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Protecting women: Legal volunteers can help THE issue of domestic violence is no more considered purely a private personal affair. It is being increasingly recognised as an aspect of human rights jurisprudence. This makes state intervention imperative. Indeed, the state is obligated to discourage or even dismantle those institutionalised practices that promote gender-based violations of women’s rights in a civil society. The incidence of domestic violence is a widespread social phenomenon. It pervades across cultures and countries. Increasingly, therefore, it is coming within the gaze of international law. Very recently, Bonita Meyersfeld, a perceptive human rights lawyer, in her work, Domestic Violence and International Law (Oxford and Portland, Oregon, 2010), has ventured to say somewhat calculatingly that “historic gender-based differentiation and discrimination” resulting into domestic violence against women “is the most serious cause of women’s ill-health world-wide, including death and disability among women aged 15 to 44; more so than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war.” India did perceive the magnitude of purely sex-based discrimination against women at the very threshold when we, the people of India, gave to ourselves our own Constitution, the Constitution of India. One of the prime objectives of the new constitutional order was to restructure our polity based on equality by discarding customs and customary traditions fostering inequality against women merely on the basis of their sex. In this respect, we need to recapitulate provisions particularly of two clauses of Article 15 of the Constitution. Clause (1) of Article 15, read with the generic principle of equality enshrined in Article 14, commends the state that it shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, or any of them. Since the whole social system, as we inherited from the colonial masters, was loaded with discrimination and exploitation of women on grounds of their sex, the women first required to be put on equal footing with men. To this end, the founding fathers of our Constitution instantly incorporated a special clause (3), which ordains in most assertive and unqualified language that nothing in this Article shall prevent the state from making any special provision for women and children. Pursuant to this constitutional command, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 has been enacted. It clearly reflects the state’s resolve to rescue women and provide protection whenever they become victims of domestic violence. However, to expand the ambit of protection, ‘domestic relationship’ bears a wider connotation under the Act. It includes a relationship between two persons who live or have, at any point of time, lived together in a shared household, when they are related by consanguinity, marriage, or through relationship in the nature of marriage, adoption or are family members living together as joint family. To extend the protective umbrella of the Act to our rural areas where, under the traditional inertia, systemic forms of domestic violence against women are most rampant, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) under the stewardship of Justice Altamas Kabir, Judge, Supreme Court, has drawn up a scheme called the “Scheme for implementing the project of para-legal volunteers by the State Legal Services Authorities” as part of the legal services activities. For fructifying this scheme, the Chief Justice of India has set up a National Committee for promoting para-legal training and legal-aid activities under the chairmanship of Justice P. Sathasivam, Judge, Supreme Court. However, to produce para-legal volunteers, we require trainers. To meet this prerequisite, the NALSA and the National Committee have recently organised “Training of the Trainer (TOT) Programme” at the Chandigarh Judicial Academy. Under this programme, Member Secretaries of the State Legal Services Authorities from all over India along with a group of lawyers and law teachers selected by the State and UT Legal Services Authorities at the national level were trained as trainers. These trainers, in turn, shall train successive groups of persons (about 50 persons in each group), who are to be identified by the District Legal Services Authorities from amongst the people of their own respective jurisdictions. The training, which shall last for three months, shall eventually produce a cadre called the Para Legal Volunteers, who would be spanning over 6,400 blocks in 623 districts in India. The Para Legal Volunteers shall be performing two major functions: to spread legal literacy; and to act as intermediaries between the needy population and the local legal services institutions. For discharging these functions, they are required to be trained in the basics of law on all such topics as relate to rights of women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, consumers, bonded labour, senior citizens, victims of undeserved want, victims of disaster, persons suffering from disability, etc. The singular merit of this new initiative is that Para Legal Volunteers shall work as volunteers without expecting any fee, remuneration or salary for doing services to the oppressed and suppressed sections of the people around them in a dedicated way as a commitment. This indeed is one of the express modalities of the NALSA scheme. However, perhaps the most critical question is how to induce and inculcate the abiding spirit of voluntariness? In fact, this should be, in our view, central to the para-legal training programme. This could be done not merely through state recognition but essentially by encouraging the trainers to become participant observers; that is, by completely identifying themselves with the understanding and resolution of the problems that they wished them to deal with. Thus, the task of trainers to train rural common and turn them into the force of Para Legal Volunteers is not just a task to be performed like any other professional official business-like task. It is indeed a mission, carried out with the missionary zeal, beyond the call of your duty, in which giving becomes instantly taking: the more you give, the happier and more rewarded you
feel! The writer is Director (Academics), Chandigarh Judicial Academy
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Introduction of GST
THE much-awaited
introduction of the new indirect tax regime, i.e., Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 1, 2011, would again been derailed due to the opposition of BJP-ruled and some other states. The controversy regarding GST started from the day one when the Kelkar Committee in its report, entitled “Implementation of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act”, submitted in July 2004, recommended a comprehensive GST and suggested three rate structure — floor, standard and high, which would be 6,12 and 20 per cent for the Centre and 4,8 and 14 per cent for the states. Preferential treatment to the Centre vis-a-vis the states, does not augur well in a federal set-up. The Empowered Committee of the State Finance Ministers, which was mainly instrumental in the successful implementation of the value added tax or VAT in the states, rightly rejected this pro-Centre approach and recommended a simple two-rate structure to minimise the burden on the poor. Already in our Constitution, due to some historical reasons, there is an in-built bias in favour of the Centre insofar as the division of financial resources is concerned. Taking advantage of the clause that whatever tax is not mentioned in the Constitution belongs to the Union Government, the Centre levied service tax for the first time in 1994-95. Receipts from service tax have progressively grown since then, and are now pegged at nearly Rs 70,000 crore in the current fiscal 2010-2011. The states have a natural claim over this revenue. Another bone of contention in the introduction of the GST is about the state taxes and levies which would be subsumed in the GST. While the Thirteenth Finance Commission and other Central bodies also want stamp duty, taxes on vehicles and taxes on goods and passengers to be subsumed in GST, the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers rejected this proposal too as these levies resemble more with direct taxes than indirect taxes. The Empowered Committee wants to submerge only “those taxes, levies and fees that are related to supply of goods and services”. In view of the Empowered Committee such state taxes are: VAT/Sales Tax, entertainment tax (unless it is levied by the local bodies), luxury tax, taxes on lottery, betting and gambling, state cesses and surcharges insofar as they relate to supply of goods and services and entry tax (not in lieu of octroi). It is a happy augury that the Empowered Committee wants to retain the local taxes like octroi and entertainment tax, which are levied by the local bodies. Though it may not be consistent with the true GST model, in a federal set-up, the suggestion, if accepted by the Centre, may prove to be a panacea for promoting decentralisation of governance. An added bonanza would be if the Centre and the states agree to transfer a certain proportion of their GST revenue to the institutions of local self-government including Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). The history of improving indirect tax structure goes back to 1957 when sales tax (now called VAT), which was a state subject, on three commodities, viz., textiles, tobacco and sugar was abolished and replaced by additional excise duty by passing the Additional Duties (Goods of Special Importance) Act, 1957. At that time this was a cakewalk for the Union Government because the Centre and the states were being governed by the same political party, which took even the most crucial decisions at the party level. In 1985, V.P. Singh, the then Union Finance Minister, wanted to extend the list of such commodities. However, in view of the stiff opposition of the states he could not do it so. Earlier too, the election manifesto of the Janata Party in 1977 had promised to abolish sales tax in India. The All-India Congress Committee (I), too, in its 1984 session, had stressed the replacement of sales tax on key commodities by union excise duty as a measure of indirect tax reforms. As outright abolition of sales tax and its replacement with additional union excise duty implied intrusion into the states’ constitutional rights, Modified Value Added Tax (MODVAT), in lieu of union excise duty was introduced for selected commodities at the Central level in 1986, and then it was gradually extended to all commodities through Central Value Added Tax
(CENVAT).
At the states level, however, these reforms occurred through the introduction of Value Added Tax (VAT) in a phased manner between April 2003 and January 2008. Buoyed by the success of VAT, the Central government indicated in February 2007 that a road map for the introduction of GST by 1 April 2010 would be prepared in consultation with the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers. No doubt, the GST has become crucial to reap the full benefits from the integration and globalisation of Indian economy as it would avoid the cascading effects of commodity taxation, i.e., tax on tax, the biggest shortcoming of the current indirect taxes framework. But for the sake of smooth working of federal financial relations in the country, nothing should be done in haste. Presently, almost all the states collect 90-100 per cent of their own tax revenue from indirect taxes. The Centre should always follow a persuasive approach as it was done while implementing the VAT. The states have also rightly rejected the proposed vesting of veto power with the Union Finance Ministers on matters relating to state GST. There appears to be some logic too when the states insist on ‘consent’ rather than ‘consensus’ approach as the latter can be vaguely defined. If today it is the Congress-led UPA government in power at the Centre, tomorrow it can be the BJP-led NDA government. Therefore, while evolving any fundamental changes in our fiscal structure, the states’ concerns must be kept in mind as they have to perform almost all the welfare functions. They should not be left moving always with a begging bowl before the
Centre. The writer is UGC Emeritus Fellow, Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala
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Profile Born on May 27, 1931, at Chavara, a coastal village in Kerala, Kurup turned out to be one of the greatest poets Kerala has seen. He spent his childhood in an environment where a peaceful agrarian culture was in constant confrontation with industrialisation. Poetry, according to him, was a drop of light that came to him in the dark solitude of his childhood. His first published poem was Munnotu (Forward) which appeared in a local weekly in 1946.It was an outburst of his exuberant patriotic sentiments, but it marked the beginning of a long poetic career. In every poem ONV assumed the role of the spokesman of millions who are languishing in darkness and poses questions to the reader. He is not bothered about ‘isms’ in literature, but he writes poetry as it comes to him. His poems purvey the message to fight the battle of his life against tyranny, desecration and destruction. In his professional stint as a teacher, Kurup started off with Maharaja’s College in Kochi as a lecturer in 1952. Later this poet genius, as a teacher, inspired the campuses of University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Arts and Science College, Kozhikode, and Government Brennun College, Thalsseri. Before his retirement in 1986, he was a visiting professor for one year. Kurup and his perception of poetry as an art and an expression with a purpose invariably dealt with the actions, thought processes, drawbacks, limits, state affairs and all that could be experienced through the five senses and mother earth. To him, a poem ultimately becomes a passionate wish for a common cause, or a means to unite hearts with showers of love and compassion. Still, on a different plane, according to Kurup, poems can be an outpour of feelings, weighed down by loss, despair and helplessness. All this is a common phenomenon, which plays its part in the drama that unfolds as life everywhere. Kurup is a music enthusiast too, and this personal trait worked towards the successful creation of a string of memorable Malayalam film songs, most of them melodies with a distinctive touch of ONV. He still relishes writing evergreen film songs. ONV’s entry into the world of films came in 1955 with Kalam Marunnu (Time is changing) by Kalidas Pictures. In 1972 he won the state award for the song Sapnam (Dream). A recipient of Padma Shree in 1988, ONV won several other titles. As a poet ONV is associated with many national organisations and programmes. He visited the erstwhile Soviet Union as a member of the Indian delegation to participate in the 150th birth anniversary of Tolstoy. He represented India in the Struga Poetry Festival , Yugoslavia (1987), and also presented poems on Beethoven and Mozart at Bonn University. Kurup feels that his mother tongue, Malayalam, has suffered the worst degradation owing to its callous handling and the pretensions of Malayalis. He was quoted as saying that unlike others, Malayalis lacked possessiveness about their mother tongue and increasingly keep Malayalam away from their lives in a bid to follow Western lifestyle. Though Malayalam is still considered as the first language, children are not allowed to talk in Malayalam in schools. In spite of the 100 per cent literacy rate in Kerala, the mother tongue is neglected in the state. Now that ONV has been chosen for the Jnanpith Award, one hopes the language will get more attention across India. This may also help Malayalam get the classical language status in
future.
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On Record A graduate in Tamil literature, he entered film industry as an assistant of Balu Mahendra, another director and cinematographer, who has many national awards to his credit. His first film Sethu was rejected by more than 60 film distributors as dull and tragic. The film was released on a low profile without advertisements and ended up as a box-office hit, despite the realistic and artistic portrayal. Its stupendous success led to remakes in Kannada (Huchcha), Telugu (Seshu) and Hindi (Tere Naam) languages. Bala is different from other directors who had won awards, since his films depicting complex themes, in a serious way, were able to succeed commercially too. The director has made only four movies in ten years and his fourth movie Naan Kadavul won two national awards. The film portrays the life of an Aghori (a sect of people who worship Lord Shiva and practices cannnibalism), who meets a world of physically and mentally challenged beggars. Here, the director speaks to The Tribune in Chennai about the National Award winning film and his perception of cinema. Excerpts: Q: It is said that you spent many days with Aghoris to study their lives and philosophy? Was spending time with cannibals tough and fearful? A:
You need not be afraid of them. It is one of the ancient philosophies of India. According to them, a dead goat or chicken is not different from a dead human being. When I observed them closely, I find them very childish. Q: So, do you accept their philosophy? After watching the film, many felt that it has an undercurrent of atheistic and anti-religious message in it? What is your personal belief on God? A: I am an atheist and do not believe in the existence of any such thing as God. In this film, despite having characters that believe in God, people feel an aversion towards religion, when watching the film. I am happy about this result. Q: Contrary to your personal belief, the hero of the film has deep faith in religion? Is it not a contradiction? A: You should not see the characters in a film as hero or villain. They are just ordinary human beings with passions and beliefs. There are no heroes, heroines or villains in real life. True art and literature should be a reflection of life. Q: The glamour quotient is very low in your films. No one looks beautiful in your movies. Why? A: What is beauty? Is it physical appearance? I think beauty is in the mind. Q: Some of the people who had acted in the film are physically challenged people. How difficult it was to make them act? A: It was not difficult. They had appeared as they are. The only thing I wanted from them was facial expressions. They grasped what I said and performed it immediately. In my own experience, I found that physically challenged people are more talented and intelligent than ordinary people. Q: Your films do not confirm to any trend and is different from others. Is it deliberate? A: I don’t believe in trends. People say this is the trend or that is the trend. There is no such a thing. People accept quality, if it is presented in an interesting way. We think that people accept only a particular kind of movie. We misjudge them. Q: Why do you avoid love stories? A: I do not dislike love. Is there anyone who dislikes love? But I do not think it will be appropriate for me. I do not think love stories will give me personal satisfaction, even though they may be more successful commercially. Q: When can we expect your next film? Can we expect another award winning movie from you? A: I do not work according to a fixed schedule. When my next film is ready, the release date will be announced immediately. As for your second question on awards, I do not make film awards. I make films for my personal
satisfaction.
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IN a democracy, a government budget is not merely a statement of income and expenditure; it represents the hopes and aspirations of people, besides being an instrument of government policies. The budget is an implicit compact between the government and the people whereby the government commits itself to the provision of specified services in return for the draft it makes on public resources. 
WHAT made Malayalam poet O N V Kurup win the Jnanpith Award? Perhaps, hardship and struggle early in his life. He lost his father at the age of eight. By then he had learnt from him the basics of Malayalam and Sanskrit. Subsequently, he was attracted towards Marxism. ONV, as he is popularly known, even contested the Lok Sabha elections in 1991 from Tiruvananthapuram but lost. He shot to fame penning songs for the progressive theatre movement for plays like Ningalennne Communistakki (You made me a Communist).
FILM director Palanisamy Bala is credited with revolutionising Tamil films with his realistic portrayal of the dark side of human psychology and society. After winning the national award last year for the film Naan Kadavul (I am God), he has not completed the next film since the expectations are high. Despite the national acclaim, Bala remains realistic and simple, answering questions in a crisp and lucid way.