-TheWire.in Why should the money collected through purpose-specific CESses be funneled into a state's consolidated fund? On July 20, 2022, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)’s report on Kerala’s finanCES for the fiscal year 2020-21 was tabled in the state assembly. Amongst several other observations, this report has noted how funds being kept outside the ‘Consolidated Fund’ of the state. The context here is the manner in which Kerala treats CESs...

-TheWire.in A recent CAG report paints a sobering picture of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board's performance. A recently tabled Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has raised critical questions over the functioning of the Delhi Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board. Let’s start with the most startling revelation. According to the national auditor, the welfare board, which comes under the Delhi government’s labour department, spent a meagre Rs...

-The India Forum The government's lack of respect for national surveys on consumption has meant that the door has been opened to preparation of unofficial estimates on poverty made on questionable assumptions. Two such recent estimates highlight the need to resume collection of data to get a true picture of poverty The government of India does not seem to be interested in knowing how many poor there are in the country. The missing...

-IPA News Service/Newsclick.in Time is ripe to do away with every central CESs on petroleum products and reject the government’s narrative that the poor are hurt less by higher priCES than the rich. The country is in the grip of an inflationary spiral resulting in a galloping price rise of all essential goods used by people. This crushing price burden is making life exceedingly difficult for the rural and urban poor. The retail...

-Financial Express Dataset and methodological weaknesses cast doubt on recent poverty estimates that claim drastic reduction Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani in a working paper (IMF), claimed India’s poverty, per a $1.9 per person per day poverty line (at PPP), was 0.9% of the population in 2020. Thanks to government transfer of free rations of 5 kg per person month, it fell to 0.8% (from 0.9% in 2019). Roy and de Velt, for...