-Newsclick.in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman invoking ‘Act of God’ to deny states their promised dues, not only violates an Act of Parliament but also defies economic logic. When the Goods and ServiCES Tax (GST) was introduced, and states virtually gave up the power to levy indirect taxes which they had enjoyed under the Constitution, the Centre had solemnly promised that it would compensate them for five years for any revenue shortfall arising...
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In ‘act of god’, coercive not cooperative federalism -Rajeev Gowda and Manpreet Singh Badal
-The Hindu In bridging the GST gap, the Centre ought to help States through the Consolidated Fund of India It is beyond anyone’s imagination that the Government of India would invoke the “Force Majeure” clause against its own people. Unfortunately, this has become reality at a time when every Indian State is massively burdened by the COVID-19 crisis and governance has been severely affected. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement on Thursday that the...
More »GST CESs falls 42% short in FY20
-The Hindu Compensation for last fiscal paid to States using previous years’ balance of CESs The Centre made up a 42% shortfall in Goods and ServiCES Tax compensation CESs collection in 2019-20 by using balance of CESs from previous years, plus a transfer from the Consolidated Fund of India. Meanwhile, the GST Council, which was slated to meet this month to discuss the possibility of market borrowing to meet likely future shortfalls,...
More »The COVID-19 fiscal response and India’s standing -Amit Basole and Jonathan Coutinho
-The Hindu The relief measures do not seem to be commensurate with the economic disruption caused by the lockdown How does India compare in the quantity and quality of its COVID-19 response to other developing countries? Here we extend our earlier analysis of India’s fiscal response (The Hindu online, “India must enhance fiscal support for COVID-19 relief and rebuilding”, April 18, 2020) drawing on the International Monetary Fund Policy Tracker, the COVID-19...
More »In 15 years, RTI has gone from Indian citizens’ most powerful tool to an Act on life support -Maneesh Chhibber
-ThePrint.in Chief Information Commission and its state counterparts have an unwritten rule about not penalising erring public information officers who discourage RTI applicants. Fifteen years after it came into effect, promising a new era in transparency in government functioning, India’s Right to Information, or RTI, Act is dying a slow but certain death, with the executive letting go of no chance to hasten the proCESs. According to an estimate, between 40 and 60...
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