Tourism sector, the allocation for
Ministry of Tourism in the Union Budget presented today has been hiked
by Rs.87.66 crore. The allocation for the Ministry this year is
Rs.1297.66 crore while it was Rs. 1210 crore in the Union Budget
2012-13 and Rs. 1110.96 crore in the Union Budget 2011-12.
The Budget allocation for Plan projects/schemes for the benefit of
North East region and Sikkim has been hiked from Rs. 121 crore to Rs.
129 crore. The allocation under this head in the Union budget 2011-2012
was 110 crore.
The allocation under tourist infrastructure is for the creation of
infrastructural facilities on construction of Budget Accommodation,
wayside amenities, Tourist Reception Centers, Refurbishment of
Monuments, Special Tourism Projects, Adventure and Sports facilities,
Sound and Light Shows, illuminations of monuments, providing for
improvement in solid waste management and sewerage management
improvement of surroundings, Signages, procurement of equipments
directly related to Tourism and Rural Tourism projects etc. This
provision also relates to the Large Revenue Generating projects,
generating revenue through levy of fees or user charges like Tourist
Trains, cruise vessels, Cruise terminals, Convention Centre, Golf
Courses etc. and creation of land bank for hotels to provide the hotel
accommodation in the country by purchasing land and build hotels through
public private partnerships. The provision also includes Externally
Aided Projects (including UNDP Endogenous Tourist Projects and
assistance to c entral agencies for Tourism Infrastructural Development.
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Thailand signs peace agreement with rebel
Thailand signs peace agreement with rebel group,Yingluck Shinwatra visiting Malaysia
by sagarmedia on February 28, 2013Thailand authority signed a peace agreement with an insurgent group as a big step toward resolving the decades-old insurgency and violence in the border region.National Security Council (NSC) secretary general Paradorn Pattanatabutr revealed to Thai media on Thursday while he was in Malaysia that the Thai authority on Thursday has signed an agreement called “General consensus dialogue process for peace” with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) Coordinate, one of the leading insurgent group in the restive southern Thailand with the help by Malaysian authority who facilitated the meeting with the insurgents.
The agreement is considered the first step as to show recognition from each side and show good wills for future agreement to resolve the problem. This has been the outcome of several meetings between Thai and Malaysian authorities toward solving southern Thai insurgency since last year, he added.
More than 5,000 people have been killed and more than 9,000 hurt in over 11,000 incidents, about 3.5 incidents a day, in Thailand’s Muslim, ethnic-Malay dominated three southern border provinces — Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla — since violence erupted in January 2004, according to Deep South Watch, which monitors the regional violence.
Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinwatra along with several other high ranking Thai officials are paying a visit in Malaysia.Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra left Bangkok on Thursday to visit Malaysia to meet with her Malaysian counterpart Najib Tun Razak.Yingluck is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul and several other ministers.
The visit is the fifth Annual Consultation between Thai premier and Malaysian premier aims at cultivating friendly relations between the two countries, reaffirming the close partnership between Thailand and Malaysia, following up on the progress on various areas of cooperation since Yingluck’s official visit to Malaysia on February 20, 2012.
According to the Thai Foreign Ministry press release, during the consultation, the parties are expected to discuss varied issues of common interest, including a comprehensive approach to resolve the insurgency in Thailand’s southern border provinces, social and economic development and connectivity in border areas such as the proposed construction of two bridges crossing the Golok River linking Thailand’s Narathiwat province and Malaysia’s Kelantan state.
Cooperation on trade and investment, such as the establishment of a Thailand-Malaysia Business Council and cooperation on tourism, particularly linking Thailand’s Satun province with Malaysia’ Langkawi island, will also be on the agenda.
After the plenary session, the prime ministers will witness the signing of an agreement on border crossings and an MoU on youth and sports cooperating before holding a joint news conference.
MYTHS AND REALITIES OF UNION BUDGET 2013-14
Myth: The Budget has rapidly increased
spending on Aam Aadmi:
Reality: The Actual Expenditure (See RE 2012-13) in key
sectors and Ministries is estimated to be either below or only marginally above
actual expenditure of last year (See Actual 2011-12)
|
Sl no.
|
|
Actual: 2011-12
(Rs in crores)
|
BE: 2012-13
(Rs in crores)
|
RE: 2012-13
(Rs in crores)
|
|
1
|
Plan Size
|
508,596
|
651,000
|
556,000
|
|
2
|
Capital Expenditure
|
158,580
|
204,816
|
167,753
|
|
|
Sectoral
Allocation
|
|
|
|
|
3
|
Social Sector Spending
|
135,480
|
178,906
|
158,339
|
|
4
|
Agriculture and Allied Activities
|
16194
|
17692
|
15971
|
|
5
|
Rural Development
|
47471
|
50729
|
43704
|
|
6
|
Irrigation and Flood Control
|
506
|
1275
|
428
|
|
|
Ministry
|
|
|
|
|
7
|
Ministry of Tribal Affairs
|
1562
|
1573
|
1427
|
|
8
|
Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
|
15031
|
13331
|
15243
|
|
9
|
Ministry of HRD
|
50658
|
61427
|
56223
|
|
10
|
Ministry of Rural Development
|
66638
|
76376
|
55000
|
|
11
|
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
|
23159
|
30477
|
24894
|
PROGRAMS
|
Sl No
|
Scheme
|
Allocation 2012-13
(BE) (Rs in crores)
|
Allocation 2013
-14 (BE) (Rs in crores)*
|
Comments
|
|
1
|
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(MGNREGS)
|
33,000
|
33,000
|
No Change
|
|
2
|
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
|
24,000
|
21,700
|
Decrease
|
|
3
|
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
|
25,555
|
27,258
|
6% increase (barely covers inflation)
|
|
4
|
Mid Day Meal Scheme
|
11,937
|
13,215
|
10% increase (little over inflation)
|
|
4
|
National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)
|
20,542
|
20,999
|
2% increase (Much less than inflation)
|
|
5
|
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
|
15,850
|
17,700
|
11% increase (little over inflation)
|
Note:
* Represents allocations and NOT the revised estimates which are less because
of the various budgetary cut. As such, they do not represent the actual
increases in some of these expenditures.
Aam Aadmi Party’s Response to Union Budget 2013
Date: 28.2.2013
Aam
Aadmi of the country has reasons to feel disappointed, if not cheated, with the
Union Budget 2013-14 presented by the ruling coalition that came to power in
his name. All over the country, cutting across gender, regions, sectors,
classes and the urban/rural divide, the aam aadami faces a crisis of economic
opportunity and livelihood. She has suffered from a long period of high
inflation, especially in food items. She has long suffered from growth that did
not deliver more jobs, a decline in growth now threatens to cut down on
existing livelihood opportunities. All the basic amenities that a citizen can
expect from democratic governance – public provisions for heath, education and
social security – are beyond the reach of the Aam Aadami. Rampant corruption
from top to the bottom eats into whatever little could trickle down to them.
The
Union Budget presented by the Finance Minister is a clever attempt to mislead
the public in an election year. The Finance Minister’s speech offers little
remedy for the key problems facing the Indian economy that he himself begins by
acknowledging: slowdown of growth, rising fiscal deficit and current account
deficit. The current crisis required the government to stimulate domestic
investment by encouraging consumption from below; instead the FM remained
focused on Foreign investors. Controlling inflation required expansion of PDS
and reinforced subsidies on energy and focus on increasing agricultural output
in pulses and oilseeds; instead the government has relied on hope. Meeting the
demands and aspirations of the people required substantial and real increase in
social sector expenditure, instead the government has resorted to statistical
tricks and gimmicks rather than put its money where its mouth is. Nor is there
any evidence of the government being serious about better usage and monitoring
of the funds spent on these public provisions. Shockingly, the government has
not come up with any measure to curb corruption and control the parallel black
economy that the public is so visibly exercised about.
An
analysis of the summary statistics of the budget make it clear that there is
little connect between the rhetoric of the budget and its actual numbers. In his speech the FM claimed that the
government has not spared money for welfare schemes; the fact is that the UPA
has drastically cut down on most of the key welfare schemes in the current year
itself. The FM’s claims about increasing outlays in key sectors is a clear case
of statistical fudging; the ‘increase’ claimed by the FM is with reference to
the drastically reduced expenditure (Revised Estimates). In most cases the rise
in budget allocations is barely enough to cover inflation. In real terms there
is no increase in spending for the aam aadami. The FM has also used the age old
devise of distracting public attention with the help of some gimmicks that cost
very little.
The
government needed to increase tax revenue, which has actually fallen by 4% in
the current year over what was budgeted; similar false assumptions seem to
driving the current projections of 20% increase in revenue. The much talked
about move to tax the rich turned out to be a damp squib, for it would affect
only 42,000 super rich and bring very small gains for the country. This small
gain would be more than made up by the generous increase in the tax exemption,
mostly for the well off and the corporate. The amount of ‘Tax foregone’ has
gone up from Rs. 5,33,000 crores to Rs. 5,73,000 crores. There is no change in
the capital gains regime to curb speculative gains activity in the stock
market.The budget gives no indication of a political will to curb black income
generation in the economy. The deferment of implementation of GARR to 2016 is
another example of the lack of political will to curb tax avoidance. There is
nothing in the budget to do away with non-transparent instruments like
Participatory Notes or to reformulate the double taxation treaties with ‘tax
heavens’ and black economy conduits.
Most
of the schemes meant for the aam aadmi have remained static or have in fact
gone down in real terms or even compared to the actual expenditure in the year
before. The central Plan size has come down from Rs. 6,51,000 crore in the
Budget last year to the Revised estimate of 5,56,000 crores, huge shortfall of
Rs. 96,000 crores. In 2012-13 expenditure on agriculture and allied activities,
rural development, irrigation and flood control and welfare of ST has actually
gone down compared to the actual expenditure of the previous year. A similar
comparison of the expenditure on health and education shows a marginal increase
that barely keeps pace with inflation. The total expenditure on social services
has fallen short by Rs. 23,000 crores compared to the budgeted allocations.
This fact acquires significance for much of the social sector expenditure takes
place at the level of the states where the transfer has been cut down by as
much as 10,000 crores.
It
is unfortunate that even the opposition has not drawn the country’s attention
to these statistical lies and inattention to the needs of the aam aadmi. Aam
Aadmi Party resolves to take this collective conspiracy of the political
establishment to the people’s court and place the concerns of aam admi at the
heart of our economic policy.
Union Budget 2013-14 presented by Finance Minister
Finance Min P Chidambaram announced a sharp increase of Rs 1.25 lakh crore in agriculture credit target to Rs 7 lakh crore for next fiscal and allocated additional Rs 10,000 crore in subsidy for implementing the Food Security Bill.
Following are some of the key highlights of the Union Budget 2013-14 presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament.
*No change in income tax slabs
*Relief of Rs 2,000 for tax payers in tax bracket of Rs 2-5 lakh
*10 pc surcharge on persons with taxable income of over Rs 1 crore
*Tobacco products, SUVs and mobile phones to cost more
*Income limit under Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme raised to 12 lakh from Rs 10 lakh
*First home loan of up to Rs 25 lakh to get extra interest deduction of up to Rs 1 lakh
*Duty free limit of gold import increased to Rs 50,000 for male passengers and Rs 1 lakh for female passengers
*India’s first women’s bank to be set up by October
*Concessional six per cent interest on loans to weavers
*Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana benefit extended to rickshaw pullers, auto and taxi drivers, among others
*’Nirbhaya Fund’ of Rs 1,000 crore to empower women and provide safety in the wake of Delhi gang-rape incident
*Fiscal deficit for 2013-14 pegged at 4.8 pc of GDP and 5.2 per cent in 2012-13
*Market borrowings pegged at Rs 6.29 lakh crore, higher
than Rs 5.59 lakh crore in FY13
than Rs 5.59 lakh crore in FY13
*Disinvestment target more than doubled to Rs 55,814 cr
*Plan expenditure pegged at Rs 5,55,322 crore and non-Plan at Rs 11,09,975 crore
*New taxes to collect Rs 18,000 crore for government
*Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme launched for recovering service tax dues
*Rs 14,000 crore earmarked for capital infusion in public sector banks in 2013-14
He also allocated 22 percent more funds to Agriculture Ministry at
Rs 27,049 crore for the 2013-14 fiscal, of which Rs 3,415 crore has been
earmarked for farm research.
Budget quote of Mr. Aneesh Srivastava, CIO, IDBI Federal.
Chidambaram announced extension of interest-subvention on crop loans to private sector banks and commercial banks.
“Agricultural credit is a driver of agricultural production. We
will exceed the target of Rs 5,75,000 crore fixed for 2012-13. For
2013-14, I propose to increase the target to Rs 7,00,000 crore,”
Chidambaram said while presenting the Budget for the 2013-14 fiscal in
the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The interest-subvention for short-term crop loan will be continued
and farmers who repay loan on time will be able to get credit at 4
percent interest per annum, he added.
“So far, the scheme has been applied to loans extended by public
sector banks, Regional Rural Banks and cooperative banks, I propose to
extend the scheme to crop loans borrowed from private sector banks and
scheduled commercial banks in respect to loans given within the service
area of the branch concern,” the Minister said.
Looking at the success of the scheme — Bringing Green Revolution in
the Eastern India, Chidambaram allocated Rs 1,000 crore for the next
fiscal.
Another Rs 500 crore was allocated for crop diversification in
states covered during the Green Revolution such as Punjab and Haryana,
which are facing stagnation in farm yields.
On proposed Food law, the Minister said: “I sincerely hope
Parliament will pass the Bill as early as possible. Over and above the
normal provision for food subsidy, I have set apart Rs 10,000 crore
towards the incremental costs that is likely under the Act.”
Fiscal deficit for 2012-13 estimated at 5.2%: Chidambaram
The fiscal deficit for the current financial year has been
contained at 5.2 percent of GDP, lower than 5.3 percent as was targeted,
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said.
“The fiscal deficit for 2012-13 has been contained at 5.2 per cent.
I propose to bring it down to 4.8 per cent by 2013-14,” Chidambaram
said while unveiling Budget 2013-14 proposals in the Lok Sabha.
Further, the Revenue Deficit has been contained at 3.9 percent in
the current fiscal and would be brought down to 3.3 percent in 2013-14.
As per the fiscal consolidation roadmap, the government plans to reduce fiscal deficit to 3 percent by 2016-17.
“We must redeem our promise and bring down the fiscal deficit to 3
per cent and revenue deficit to 1.9 per cent by 2016-17,” Chidambaram
said.
Tax benefits in RGESS extended to 3 years: Chidambaram
While presenting the Budget 2013-14 in the Lok Sabha Finance
Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday proposed liberalising the Rajiv
Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme (RGESS) to enable first time investors to
park funds in MFs and listed shares and extended tax benefits to three
successive years.
Also, the limit for investors wanting to invest in RGESS has been raised to Rs 12 lakh from Rs 10 lakh earlier.
The RGESS will be liberalised to enable first time retail investors
to invest in mutual funds and listed shares and not in one year alone,
but for three successive years, Chidambaram said.
The RGESS, which was originally announced in the Budget for
2012-13, seeks to provide tax benefits to first-time investors in stock
markets. Under the scheme, an individual with an income of less than Rs
12 lakh would get tax incentives for investing up to Rs 50,000 in the
stock market.
An insipid budget
The Union Budget for 2013-14 seems to be a populist one that neither creates any impact on the economy, nor does it address the long-term growth needs.
While the Budget may prove to be positive for FIIs as they can now invest in corporate & government bonds as collateral to meet margin requirements, the Tax Residency Certificate has again become an issue.
The piecemeal perks in some sectors are just not enough to accelerate growth. India continues to face the challenge of getting back to its potential growth rate of 8% along with bringing down inflation. The target to achieve a higher growth rate and a decrease in fiscal deficit looks unlikely in these conditions. The Budget also does not give any direction to address the issue of high current account deficit. The expenditure programme announced by the government would actually be inflationary.
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Robust Inflow of FDI in the Services Sector
| Robust Inflow of FDI in the Services Sector India’s Share of Services Exports Increasing Faster than Share of Merchandise Exports |
| The FDI inflows in the services sector grew robustly at 57.62% compared to the growth of overall FDI inflows at 33.6%, in 2011-12. However, in April-November, 2012-13, overall FDI inflows fell by 43.3% to US $ 15.85 billion from US $ 27.93 billion in the corresponding period in the previous year. FDI inflows in the top five services also fell by 9.7% to US $ 8.19 billion. The Government has taken many policy initiatives to liberalize FDI policy for services sector. This includes increasing FDI limit from 49 to 74% in teleports and DTH and cable networks, permitting FDI upto 74% in mobile TV, upto 49% in scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services and upto 50% in multi-brand retail trading. The Government has also amended the existing policy on FDI in single brand product retail trading. The share of services export of India in the world exports of services has been increasing faster than the share of merchandise exports in world exports. It grew from 0.6% in 1990 to 1% in 2000 and 3.3% in 2011. The overall openness of the economy reflected by total trade including services as a percentage of GDP shows higher degree of openness at 55% in 201-12 as compared to 38.1% in 2004-05. The openness indicator based only on merchandise trade is 43.2% in 2011-12, as compared to 28.3% in 2004-05. |
USA SC:No challenge to FISA
USA SC:No challenge to FISA
United States Supreme Court will not let Americans challenge a provision in a foreign intelligence law that lets the federal government secretly eavesdrop on the intimate communications of millions of Americans.
On Tuesday, the top justices in the US said the country’s highest court will not hear a case in which Amnesty International and a slew of co-plaintiffs have contested a provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, or FISA, that lets the National Security Agency silently monitor emails and phone calls [.pdf].
Under the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), the NSA is allowed to conduct electronic surveillance on any US citizen as long as they are suspected of conversing with any person located outside of the United States. That provision was scheduled to expire at the end of 2012, but Congress voted to re-up the bill and it was put back on the books for another five years.
Along with human rights workers and journalists, Amnesty International first challenged the FAA on the day it went into effect, arguing that the powers provided to the NSA under the FISA amendments likely puts the plaintiffs and perhaps millions of other Americans at risk of surveillance. Now years later, though, they are finally being told that they cannot challenge the law that, while meant to collect foreign intelligence, puts every person in the country at risk of being watched.
“Under the FAA, the government can target anyone — human rights researchers, academics, attorneys, political activists, journalists — simply because they are foreigners outside the United States, and in the course of its surveillance it can collect Americans’ communications with those individuals,” the American Civil Liberties Union wrote on behalf of the plaintiffs in a legal brief filed last year with the court.
Amnesty, et al have been pursuing an injunction against the NSA in their lawsuit, which names former NSA-Chief James Clapper is a co-defendant. Because the plaintiffs cannot prove that they’ve actually been targeted under the FAA, however, the case is been stalled endlessly.
In last year’s filing, the ACLU acknowledged that an appeals court panel agreed in 2011 that “plaintiffs have good reason to believe that their communications, in particular, will fall within the scope of the broad surveillance that they can assume the government will conduct,” and the full body of US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit later refused the government’s attempts to have them reconsider.
“But instead of allowing the case to be heard on the merits, the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to review the case,” the ACLU’s Ateqah Khaki, wrote. “Our brief urges the Court to affirm the appeals court’s decision.”
On Tuesday, however, the Supreme Court dismissed the claims that the plaintiffs were being watched under the FAA. Amnesty and others had argued that the presumed surveillance they were subjected to has caused them to go out of their way to maintain working relationships with clients, forcing them to travel abroad to communicate without the fear of being monitored.
Dear N.K-:Brazil’s top rail projects for 2013
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