Below The Line

Cancellation confusion

State ministers and officials were perplexed at the sudden cancellation of the State power ministers’ conference in Rajgir, Bihar, as all that the statement from the power ministry said was: “The Conference of Power/NRE Ministers of States and UTs to be held on 10th and 11th November, 2017 at Rajgir, Bihar has been postponed. The new Date of this conference will be intimated later.” There was a simple explanation: RK Singh, minister of state (independent charge) for power, had to attend a meeting of the council of ministers called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But since the schedule for the meeting was known earlier, why wasn’t this information communicated immediately?

New look FinMin

The finance ministry opened its doors to a renovated and stylish looking conference room when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met reporters on Friday to comment on Moody’s upgrade of India’s ratings. Apart from discussions on the upgrade, the new look conference room was also a key talking point!

Taxman gets busy

From all accounts, the week that passed by was a hectic one for tax sleuths across the country. From a former Tamil Nadu chief minister’s residence to the homes of certain former top honchos of the National Stock Exchange — all was fair game for taxmen who went on a binge in search of undisclosed incomes. What is interesting is that the raids at certain NSE officials’ residences had a ripple effect in the capital. It appears the searches led to taxmen reaching the doorsteps of an academic who held a lot of sway over the finance ministry during the erstwhile UPA regime; they did not go disappointed.

As part of the NSE-related tax raids, tax sleuths also stumbled upon huge cash pile (about ₹11 crore) from a stock broker in the capital. Thankfully, most of the cash bundles at the broker’s house were in ₹2,000 notes, making it easy to count!

Coffee in GST soup

The downward revision of GST on food and beverages consumed at restaurants was meant to come as a relief for consumers. But to their surprise, retail outlets hiked the sale price of products claiming that a 5 per cent tax rate without input credit has led to the rise. Consumers then took to the social media to vent their anger. The sale receipt of a McDonald’s restaurant being widely shared shows the sale price of a regular latte being hiked from ₹120 to ₹135 after the GST rate was reduced from 18 per cent to 5 per cent. Effectively, the latte was sold at the same price after the tax cut.

A similar receipt that was being shared had the price of a coffee and a rava masala dosa being hiked to cover up the space the lowered tax left, giving the consumer an effective saving of just ₹1 on a purchase of ₹135.

Clean toilet movement

The Swachh Bharat Mission celebrated World Toilet Day for an Open Defecation Free India. The central team assisted villagers in Champaran, Bihar, to build Izzatghar. An official statement said, “If Santa Claus was the flavour of toilet education in Jharkhand, Punjab launched Swachhta Raths. Noted sand Artist Sudarsan Pattnaik crafted a swachhata message on sand and a group of Assamese women inspired 371 villagers to build toilets.”

Parameswaran Iyer, secretary in the ministry of drinking water and sanitation, led a team to complete construction of twin-pit toilets in Turkauliya village in East Champaran district of Bihar. Over three days, the team interacted with the villagers to generate a demand for toilets.

The PM, who spoke about it first, said: “On World Toilet Day we reaffirm our commitment towards improving sanitation facilities across our nation. I compliment all those individuals and organisations working towards building more toilets in various parts of India. Their invaluable contribution adds solid momentum to Swachh Bharat Mission.” Well said!

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