New Delhi, Dec 23 : The all-powerful GST Council today made a ‘reasonable headway’ on supporting legislations for the new indirect tax regime but its rollout from April 1 looked virtually impossible as it postponed discussion on the critical issue of administration and control of tax payers.
The panel, which met for the seventh time since the Constitutional Amendment to replace central and state taxes with a Goods and Service Tax was approved in mid-September, tweaked the periodicity of payment of compensation for loss of revenue to states for implementation of GST to bi-monthly instead of previously decided quarterly payment.
Also, the Council decided to create the kitty for the compensation ‘from any other tax’ besides the cess on luxury and sin goods it had previously approved, as states saw revenues being dented by slowdown in economic activity and resultant tax collections following demonetisation.
The GST Council will meet again on January 3-4 and take up the issue of which part of tax payers should be controlled by the Centre and who should be governed by the states after a single tax will replace levies like central excise, service tax and VAT.
The dual control is also part of the Integrated-GST legislation that Parliament needs to pass before the new regime is rolled out.
But for this stumbling block, mirror legislations of Central-GST and State-GST, that have to be approved by Parliament and state assemblies respectively, neared finality with most clauses agreed upon.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the law to provide for compensation to the states for loss of revenue was also approved by the GST Council at its two-day meeting which ended today but a final draft with legal language would be approved at the next meeting.
“I am trying my best,” he said, when asked about the April 1 rollout schedule. “I am not going to bind myself with anything. Our effort is to do it as quickly as possible and I think we are making a reasonable headway.”
Three consecutive meetings of the GST Council have not been able to take up the issue of dual control. Some states like West Bengal and Kerala want a minimum turnover criteria be fixed to decide who control which assessee, a proposal the Centre is not agreeable to because states lack expertise on levies like service tax.
“If you ask me what are the principle residuary items left, the main item of course is the IGST and dual empowerment issue. The second is the legally vetted language which will be placed in the next meeting on January 3-4,” Jaitley said, adding that the Council will take up items in each tax bracket after that. .
Facebook is making us unhappy and causing people who suffer “Facebook envy” to be particularly depressed, a study has found.
Users who took a week-long break from the social media site were found to be more satisfied with life and rated their own well-being as higher.
Those who admitted suffering high levels of Facebook envy, the tendency to be jealous of your friends’ activities on social media, benefited most from going teetotal.
“Millions of hours are spent on Facebook each day,” wrote report author Morten Tromholt.
“We are surely better connected now than ever before, but is this new connectedness doing any good to our well-being?
“According to the present study, the answer is ‘no’. In fact, the predominant uses of Facebook – that is, as a means to communicate and gain information about others, as habitual pastime – are affecting our well-being negatively on several dimensions.”
The sample size was 86 per cent female, spread across Denmark, with an average age of 34, and with an average Facebook-friends count of 350.
They were first asked to take a 15-minute pre-test which then randomly dropped them into either the treatment group – who were banned from Facebook for seven days – or the control group – who were asked to continue using it as usual.
In the post-test on the last day of the experiment, which 888 participants completed, 13 per cent of the treatment group admitted giving in and using Facebook.
The majority of these “non-compliers” claimed it was either because of an emergency or was a “habitual accident”.
In the test, the Facebook users rated their life satisfaction at 7.74 out of 10 average, but those who stayed away rated it at 8.11.
The effect of quitting Facebook on well-being was also greater for users who feel “Facebook envy” than for users who do not.
A study has also found the more time 19 to 32-year-olds spend on social media, the more likely they are to become depressed.
Facebook, which had 1.79 billion monthly active users in the third quarter of this year, rolled out emoji reactions in January to sit alongside its famous “Like” button.
“To make things clear, if one is a heavy Facebook user, one should use Facebook less to increase one’s wellbeing,” added Mr Tromhalt.
Brenda Wiederhold, editor-in-chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, said the study showed Facebook “lurking” may cause negative emotions.
Independent report.
Kolkata, Dec 22 : The ED today attached assets to the tune of Rs 1,250 crore, including eight hotels and a Rolls Royce luxury car, in connection with its money laundering probe in the Rose Valley chit fund scam case where thousands of people were allegedly cheated in West Bengal and Odisha.
Officials said the agency issued a provisional attachment order for seizing hotels of the group located in Jaipur (Rajasthan), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Panaji (Goa), Haridwar (Uttarakhand), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Silchar (Assam) and Kolkata (two hotels) and a fleet of a dozen cars which included a Rs 5-crore worth Rolls Royce.
“The deed value of the attached assets is about Rs 465 crore but the market value of the same is Rs 1,250 crore. The attachment order has been issued,” they added.
The agency had registered a criminal FIR against the firm, its Chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Kundu was last year arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) from here and he is currently in judicial custody.
The agency has earlier issued four attachment orders in this case for assets worth over Rs 500 crore and separate ED charge sheets have been filed in courts in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.
An attachment order under PMLA laws is aimed to deprive the accused from getting benefits of their ill-gotten wealth.
It had, hence, registered a criminal FIR against the firm and its owners in 2014 under PMLA.
The ED, under criminal provisions of the PMLA, had earlier attached 2,631 bank accounts of the Rose Valley group containing Rs 295 crore.
The group had allegedly floated a total of 27 companies for running the alleged chit fund operations out of which only half-a-dozen were active.
It is alleged that the firm had floated the scheme by promising inflated returns on investments between 8 and 27 per cent to gullible investors in various states.
The company had allegedly promised astronomical returns to depositors on land properties and assets and bookings done in the real estate sector. It is alleged that the company had made “cross investments” in its various sister firms to suppress its liabilities towards investors.
SEBI had probed the company before ED and CBI registered cases against the group.
The ED has pegged the total volume of the alleged irregularities at Rs 15,000 crore.
Scientists have discovered what appears to be a fundamental reason why people are dyslexic.
Using MRI scans to monitor the brains of people who present with the condition, and those who don’t, researchers found a “really pronounced” difference in responses to a series of visual and audio cues.
The researchers were surprised to find such a broad range of effects but speculated that dyslexia only shows itself when people try to read because this is a relatively demanding task.
While humans have evolved to be skilled verbal communicators, writing is a relatively recent occurrence in our history, particularly as something that most people in society do.
One of the researchers, Professor John Gabrieli, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: “You learn something upon the initial presentation that makes you better able to do it the second time, and the ease is marked by reduced neural activity. Because you’ve done something before, it’s easier to do it again.”
Scans of the brains of people with dyslexia showed this adaptation process was not as effective – their brains were more exercised to understand the same information, the academics reported in the journal Neuron.
Speaking to The Independent, Professor Gabrieli said: “There are different ways to struggle to read, but for many individuals with dyslexia, we suspect this might be the route pathway – the beginning would be this broader reduction in [brain] plasticity that only manifests itself when the demands for plasticity are highest.”
He added the study suggested a potential new way to alleviate effects of dyslexia by artificially increasing the plasticity of the brain.
However Prof Gabrieli said the techniques used to do this – involving electromagnetic stimulation of the brain – were at an experimental stage and had not been tried for the condition.
“We’d love if it would have implications for helping people, but we know that’s far away,” he said.
Prof Tyler Perrachione, of Boston University – the lead author of the study – said: “Adaptation is something the brain does to help make hard tasks easier [but] dyslexics are not getting this advantage.
“I am surprised by the magnitude of the difference. In people without dyslexia, we always see adaptation, but in the dyslexics, the lack of adaptation was often really pronounced.”
About one in 10 people in the UK, some 6.3 million people, are estimated to have dyslexia.
In addition to making reading and spelling more difficult, it can affect short-term memory, maths and co-ordination. However it does not affect general intelligence or reasoning.
Dyslexia was first diagnosed in Seaford, Sussex, in 1896 as a “case of congenital word blindness” involving a 14-year-old boy called Percy.
A report in the British Medical Journal said that “in spite of this laborious and persistent training, he can only with difficulty spell out words of one syllable”.
“The schoolmaster who taught him for some years says that he would be the smartest lad in the school if the instruction were entirely oral,” it added.
However those with the condition were often dismissed as being “thick” or “lazy” and it was not until the 1970s that the role of language processing was recognised.
Professor Gabrieli said previous research had long laid that misconception to rest.
“I have colleagues who are professors who are dyslexic and who are amazing,” he said.
Dr John Rack, head of research at charity Dyslexia Action, said the researchers had come up with “some interesting findings”.
“What is particularly interesting is that better reading skills in adults and children with dyslexia were associated with greater repetition-induced neural adaptation,” he said.
“We also recognise that these results highlight a dysfunction of rapid neural adaptation as a core neurophysiological difference in dyslexia that may underlie impaired reading development and this new evidence is helping to build an understanding of the differences in brain functions which can ultimately result in a greater understanding of specific reading impairments.
“This is theoretically well-grounded research that is seeking to explain what we know to be the core issues for people with dyslexia: learning to map letters and sounds for the development of fluent reading and spelling skills. Increasing this understanding can help us to tailor our teaching interventions to be even more effective.”
Independent report.
Pakistan Navy fired a live surface-to-surface anti-ship missile along the North Arabian Sea on Wednesday and said the successful test reaffirms its commitment to safeguard maritime frontiers “against all threats”. The frontline combat unit of Pakistan Navy undertook the live firing of Surface to Surface Anti-ship missile from Sword Class frigate PNS ASLAT which was witnessed by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah.
“The missile successfully destroyed its intended target with pinpoint accuracy reaffirming weapon’s lethality and offensive punch of Pakistan Navy’s Fleet,” Radio Pakistan reported. Zakaullah expressed his satisfaction on the operational preparedness of Pakistan Navy Fleet and said the Live Missile Firing “reaffirms credibility of deterrence at sea and reassures Pakistan Navy’s commitment to safeguard our maritime frontiers against all threats”. The successful conduct of missile firing also demonstrates the efficacy and lethality of modern weapon systems operated by Pakistan Navy, the report said.
Last week, Pakistan successfully test-fired an enhanced version of an indigenously-designed cruise missile that can hit targets at 700 kms with all kinds of warheads, bringing many Indian cities within its range. Named after the Mughal invader and founder of the dynasty of same name, the missile is part of Babur Weapon System version – 2 as it is enhanced version of earlier missile and incorporates advanced aerodynamics and avionics that can strike targets both at land and sea with high accuracy.
It is a low flying, terrain hugging missile, which carries certain stealth features and is capable of carrying various types of warheads, according to a press statement. The missile is equipped with state-of-the-art navigational technologies of Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM) and all-time Digital Scene Matching & Area Co-relation (DSMAC) which enables it to engage various types of targets with pinpoint accuracy even in the absence of GPS navigation. Babur weapons system is an important force multiplier for Pakistan’s strategic defence.
The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission in medical colleges will be held in eight languages- Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu- for the academic year 2017-18.
Also, the candidate qualifying NEET will be eligible for all India quota and other quotas under the State governments and Institutes irrespective of the medium taken by candidates, subject to other eligibility criteria, the Union health ministry said in a statement.
In May, Union Health Minister JP Nadda had held a meeting with the health ministers and health secretaries of 18 states/Union territories towards implementation of NEET across states.
Joint Secretary, Medical Education, AK Singhal said, “The collaborative efforts of central health ministry with the state health ministries have lead to this decision so as to bring parity for the students who have taken the state board exams.”
NEET has replaced AIPMT and has been made mandatory for admissions in all-India medical/dental colleges which means no other state can conduct its separate medical entrance.
Mumbai, Dec 21 : The Reserve Bank today imposed penalty on five foreign banks, including Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, for violation of its instructions on reporting requirements of the FEMA.
The three other banks are: Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and The Royal Bank of Scotland.
RBI said they have been fined for violation of its instructions on reporting requirements of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).
Germany’s Deutsche Bank has been imposed fine of Rs 20,000, while Bank of America, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank have been fined Rs 10,000 each.
“The penalties have been imposed in exercise of the powers vested in the Reserve Bank under the provisions of Section 11(3) of FEMA 1999, taking into account, the violations of the instructions/directions/guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India, from time to time,” RBI said.
RBI said it has issued show cause notices to all the banks, in response to which the banks submitted written replies and also made oral submissions thereon.
“After considering the facts of the cases and the banks’ replies in the matter, Reserve Bank came to the conclusion that the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of penalty,” RBI said further.
Seoul, Dec 21 : South Korea’s ruling conservative party today faced an imminent split over the impeachment of scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye, a development that would seriously undermine its presidential election chances.
More than 30 lawmakers of the Saenuri Party, who have been at odds with Park, have vowed to leave, arguing the party’s current leadership refuses to embrace reforms despite the corruption scandal and impeachment crisis.
“We’ve reached a conclusion that conservatives’ reform through the Saenuri Party is impossible”, Yoo Seung-Min, an eminent lawmaker among the dissenters told journalists.
A split would also complicate a possible run by outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who had been widely expected to compete as a centre-right candidate on the Saenuri ticket.
Thirty-five lawmakers have agreed to break away from the party on December 27, the group said, adding they will try to convince more parliamentary members to join them.
Their departure will leave the party with some 90 lawmakers within the 300-seat parliament and relegating it to second place behind the liberal Democratic Party within the National Assembly.
The group crossed party lines to join opposition parties in passing a motion to impeach Park this month.
Park is accused of colluding with her friend Choi Soon-Sil to strong-arm large companies like Samsung into handing over tens of millions of dollars to two dubious foundations Choi allegedly controlled and plundered.
Park is also accused of ordering aides to leak state documents to Choi, who has no official title or security clearance, and allowing her to meddle in some state affairs, including the appointment of top officials.
The case is now being considered by the constitutional court, which has up to 180 days to rule on the validity of the impeachment that charged Park with multiple criminal and constitutional violations — ranging from bribery to abuse of power.
If the justices confirm impeachment, Park will be permanently removed and elections must be held within 60 days — meaning a ballot could be held as early as late March.
The split will drastically reduce the chances of the conservative party winning the presidential election.
Karachi, Dec 20 : The screening of Bollywood films has resumed in Pakistan after three months in a low-key manner with cinema owners still fearing an adverse reaction from extremists amid recent tensions between India and Pakistan.
A visit to some single screen cinemas and multiplexes a day after the screening resumed yesterday showed small crowds and low-visibility publicity posters.
The manager of Capri cinema in Karachi admitted this is being done intentionally.
“The relations between the two countries are not good so we are just keeping it low-key and not creating too much hype.
It will take some time for things to get normal,” Saleem said.
“The response to screening of Indian films once again has been a mixed one going by social media and other media outlets. While some are objecting in a spirit of patriotism there are others who support our decision,” said well known film distributor Nadeem Mandviwalla, owner of Atrium cinemas.
“I can understand why my colleagues are still apprehensive about any strong reactions because I have been through it myself. Indo-Pak relations can stir very extreme reactions in both countries, more so in India,” he said.
Mandviwalla also owns the historic Nishat cinema in the heart of Karachi which was burnt down in 2012 amid violent protests against a purportedly anti-Islamic short film called “Innocence of Muslims” aired on YouTube.
The Nishat cinema which was an iconic symbol at one time for Karachi’s thriving cultural and arts scene still remains a charred building with Mandviwalla refusing to rebuild it.
‘Freaky Ali’, a 2016 romantic comedy which has a cast of Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Arbaaz Khan and Amy Jackson is the first Indian film to be screened after Pakistani film exhibitors, distributors and cinema owners had in a collective show of patriotism voluntarily suspended the screening of Indian films last September after a ban on Pakistani artistes in India by the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association.
“Films that had already been imported will be screened as a token for now while we are negotiating for release of new Bollywood releases,” Mandviwalla said.
He said the decision to screen Indian films again was taken because the government had not pushed for any ban last September and there was no public agitation over screening of the films at a time when there was a serious threat to Indian filmmakers in India over casting Pakistani actors.
“Yes it is a commercially motivated decision partially but also because our cinema industry needs to get back on its feet and we need to show the world we are more openhearted in Pakistan,” he said. .
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Board exams for Class X are set to become compulsory for all CBSE students from 2018, three language formula could be extended till Class X and foreign language might be treated as fourth and “elective”, according to decisions taken by the CBSE today.
At the meeting of CBSE’s Governing body, its members “unanimously” agreed that from the academic session 2017-18, compulsory Board exams should be introduced for all students of Class X, sources told PTI here.
The decision will now have to be approved by the government before it is implemented.
Currently, it is optional for CBSE students to choose either the Board exam or a school-based examination.
HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has in the past favoured making Board exam compulsory for CBSE students as is the practice in all state boards.
The sources said while there is a view that for the Class X Board exams, 80 percent weightage will be given to the marks scored in examinations while 20 percent weightage will be given to school-based evaluation.
In another key decision, the CBSE has decided to recommend to the HRD ministry that the three language formula, under which Hindi, English and Indian language are taught, should be extended to class IX and X as well from the current VI to VIII, a source said.
Oficials added that the Board also favoured sending a recommendation to the Centre that those languages which are listed in schedule VIII of the Constitution should be taught under the ‘Three language formula’ while languages which are “purely foreign” should be taught as a “fourth language as an elective subject.”
In the past the HRD ministry run Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) used to offer German as a third language, but the practice was later discontinued.
The final call on these decisions will be taken by the government, a senior official said.
New Delhi : Transaction charges need to be kept at a minimum level to encourage digital payments and make it “ubiquitous” as India is a “cost-sensitive” market, TRAI Chairman R S Sharma said today.
Citing example of the telecom sector, Sharma said mechanism can be worked out to ensure that small payments are financially sustainable.
“There are three things which are extremely important for digital transactions to become ubiquitous – cost, convenience and confidence. India is an extremely cost-sensitive market…you can’t have Rs 5 commission on Rs 100 transaction.
That is not going to work,” Sharma said speaking at a seminar on ‘Demonetisation to Digital Remonetisation’ organised by FICCI.
Urging financial institutions to emulate the telecom sector where average value of pre-paid digital recharge is Rs 10, is “financially sustainable”, Sharma said that charges levied on digital transactions should be based on ‘work done’ principle.
“My view is that not only in the short run, in the longer run too, if the work done principle is adopted in digital transactions, this whole merchant discount rate (MDR) and other issues will go away. I am not saying that they (banks) should stop earning any money but if they earn money they should earn money in a reasonable manner,” Sharma said.
He further pointed out that two per cent charge on credit card transactions would prompt people to use alternative, which is cash.
“That thing has to go in the long run, if we want cashless to continue…otherwise there is a danger than once these incentives end, people will revert back to cash, which should not happen. India has to become cashless,” he said.
“I think there is a need to reduce these MDR and other digital charges…” Sharma said.
Asked about Vodafone’s move to challenge in court TRAI’s Rs 1050 crore penalty recommendation for denial of interconnectivity to newcomer Reliance Jio, Sharma declined to comment on the matter.
“This is a free country, every entity has the right of legal recourse and they are well within their rights to go to approach the courts, which is fine. Why should I have any comments, reservation or problems with that,” Sharma said on the sidelines.
Vodafone last week told the Delhi High Court that the TRAI’s recommendation to the Centre to impose Rs 1050 crore penalty on it for not giving interconnectivity to Reliance Jio was an “arbitrary” decision.
TRAI had recommended imposition of a fine of Rs 50 crore for each of the 21 circles of Vodafone, except in Jammu and Kashmir, coming to a total of Rs 1050 crore.