GST

Goods and Service or simply GST has been in the news and on the minds of people from past few years in India. So what exactly is GST and what are its implications, how would it impact the lives of people and the Indian economy. Goods & Service tax is basically a form of an indirect tax that brings together most of the taxes that are imposed on various goods and services under a single tax system. Currently in India various taxes are levied discretely on goods and services. Introduction of GST would be an important step in history of indirect taxation in India.

Integration of various central and state taxes into a single tax system would simplify trade and commerce; also it would make the work of administration easier and simple. Implications of GST would lead to reduction in the overall tax burden on the consumers as it the consumers who consume the goods and services. A committee headed by Asim Dasgupta was formed by the NDA government in the year 2000 to prepare the layout for GST and its implementation. P Chidambaram, then the Finance minister of India while presenting the central budget for the year 2006-07 announced that GST would be introduced from 1^st April 2010. He also said that the empowered committee of state finance ministers would work with the central government in framing out a procedure or plan for implementation of GST in India. In the present situation Constitution Amendment Bill to introduce GST has been passed in the lower house of the Parliament, the Lok Sabha but is still pending in the upper house, the Rajya Sabha.

For the implementation of GST, the Constitution Amendment Bill on GST has to be passed by two-third majority by both the houses and once it has been passed, it needs the approval of more than half of the twenty nine Indian states. The bill is pending in the Rajya Sabha as some few changes are required in the bill and most of the states are not in support for the current bill. At present different types of taxes like sales tax, value added tax, service tax etc. are levied upon business and individuals, implementation of GST would eradicate above mentioned taxes as there would be a single tax system.

More than 100 countries around the globe have implemented GST.

It would reduce the burden of taxes on producers and stimulate the growth in economy. Manufacturing has become expensive under the current taxation policy where the manufacturers pay different kinds of taxes. GST would make the work of administration more transparent as different types of taxes that people have to pay would be reduced or get reduced. It would help in better willingness and flexibility in the revenue system. It would result in a simple, clear and easy tax system.

Few critics and intellectuals have argued that implementing GST would have an adverse impact on the lives of people who have low income as tax would consume higher proportion of their income in comparison with the people earning very high income. Certain products like fossil fuels (petrol, natural gas, kerosene etc.), products containing alcohol and electricity would not be included under GST.

Overall GST brings in more assistance than loss to society.     

Akshay Raina 

Child Labour

In past few years Child Labour has become one of the biggest social evils in India. Childhood is one of the happiest period of one’s life, it is the most unforgettable and memorable phase of one’s life which every child has right to live happily. Children have their full right to play, go to school, feel the love and care of their parents.

In many developing countries like India, child labour has become very existence of widespread due to high level of poverty and lack of proper education. Child labour is the crime against humanity which has become a threat for the society. It involves regular or improper working of children in their childhood. Many children against their will are forced to work hard for long hours and are paid very less for their hard work. It’s the time when they should study and play but unluckily or unfortunately they are forced to work against their will.

According to official reports there are around 12 million child workers in India.

Presence of harmful chemical and loud noise makes the condition of these children venerable to many health problems. This kind of situation should not be allowed to continue as child labour is against national and international laws. Those people who are engaged in it should be severely punished.

Children are known to be an important asset for their country but some selfish people are destroying the future of the country for their selfish need by engaging children in harsh labour.

Protecting children from child labour is the need of the hour and it’s the responsibility of each & every one of us to protect the future of these children.

Child labour is destroying the health of the children physically, mentally, socially and intellectually. Rich people should contribute or help poor people so that their children too can get necessary things in their childhood. In order to curb this social menace government should implement laws & regulation very strictly. There is a need of more effective and strict laws against child labour to be made in order to stop children from working in hazardous conditions. Social awareness should be created to educate the masses about the impact  of child labour on society and also on the lives of children. Owners of industries and business organizations should take a pledge not to involve children in any type of labour.

                                                                                                                    -Akshay Raina

Brussels Terror Attacks : Attack on humanity

Once again Europe suffered a major terrorist attack, this time it was in the heart of Europe that is in Brussels in Belgium. Terrorist linked with ISIS attacked the capital city of Belgium Brussels, they carried out bomb explosions and fired on the people at the airport and in metro train killing at least 35 people and wounding more than hundred. Now this is the wakeup call not only for Belgium but for the whole world to join hands together to fight common enemies of humanity.

With the deadliest and devastating attacks that has left many people in distress in recent times in Europe, many questions have arised or are being raised that is how did this happen, how was the terrorist plan carried out? Who supported them in this violent activity? What lessons we have learnt from these attacks? There are many questions which needs an answer. As the investigations would continue, we would be able to get more information and answers to some of these questions.

A counter terrorism efforts and advanced system of co-operation and co-ordination needs to be carried out amongst the nations which have been threatened or are directly or indirectly affected by it. One of the significant steps that Belgium government has to take is raise the level of security and safety in Belgium. It must be raised to a very far higher standard.

Belgium is the main center of activities of European Union but it is also becoming the hub of Islamic radicalism in Europe.

Belgium if compared with other European nations is one of the largest per capita providers of fighters to Syria. The terrorists that attacked Paris in November, most of amongst them were from Belgium. Major changes in security, policing and investigation practices needs to be carried out or needs to be implemented with very high standards. These changes should be done keeping in minds the rights of people and law.

People from all over the world have condemned the recent attacks on Brussels and have responded to this brutal act with harmony and unity in grief and resolve to carry on. The administration must do everything that they can do to arrest the perpetrators and to guard the people against such brutal acts in future. In this difficult time every country should support Belgium and that support should be strong and visible in nature.

The beckon of ISIS is rising international security crisis and crucial steps should be taken to stop this menace.

Akshay Raina

Panama Leaks: Road to Black Money and Money Laundering

A series of millions of confidential documents were leaked from Mossak Fonseca, a Panama based law firm, which took whole world to surprise and shock. These leaked documents have disclosed many high profile names who through or with the help of this firm had created offshore companies in the tax haven countries and invested their money in it to save them from paying taxes in their respective countries. The set of these leaked documents explains how these powerful super rich high profile people used to hide their black money from the scrutiny of the government to set aside themselves from giving taxes.

These essential and confident documents were leaked by some anonymous sources and passed on to German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. This German newspaper shared these confident documents with the Washington based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). With months of detailed investigation and analysis, ICIJ disclosed these secret financial dealings of the rich and powerful persons. This series of examination of leaked documents by ICIJ was carried out with the help and co-operation of more than 300 journalists from more than 50 countries.

The leak was disclosed after carrying detailed investigations for months. Some of the big names that have been revealed in the panama leaks are Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iceland’s President, Syrian President Basher-Al-Assad, and Argentina President Mauricio Macri, Hollywood Actor Jackie Chan, Bollywood Actress Aishwaria Rai, Amitabh Bachan, Industrialist Vinod Adani and K.P.Singh to name some few; the list includes many more high profile names.

What makes these revelations different and unique is the abundance of the information; these leaks are many times bigger than what Wikileaks released few years back.

Having a company in a tax heaven country is not a crime but what it is used for and from where does the money comes from is the main issue. Without taxes, the system would struggle to function properly as it would be difficult to provide essential public services. Iceland’s Prime Minister has resigned from his job and many other powerful persons are facing the pressure for their involvement in hiding black money in tax heavens.

These panama leaks documents provides with the details of working of these offshore companies. Mossak Fonseca registers the companies of its clients in tax heaven and these companies only exists on paper only with no office and no employees. It used to keep the identity of their client anonymous and also used to hide their fortunes in these offshore companies.

From these revelations we can say that this firm Mossak Fonseca is involved in huge money laundering business. We can’t ignore huge possibility that this black money could be used or involved in terrorist activities or to fund such illegal activities.

The success of Mossak Fonseca relied on broad network of powerful persons, accountants, lawyers and from big banks that hired it to manage the finances of their powerful and wealthy clients.

Mossak Fonsecca co founder Ramon Fonseca told that the information is fake and is full of inaccuracies and many companies cited by ICIJ are not and have never been clients of Mossak Fonsecca.

With some Indian names in this leak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered an investigation into the matter and the NDA government has announced a special multi-agency group comprising officers from investigative units of Central Board of Direct Taxes and its Foreign Tax & Tax Research Division, RBI and Financial Intelligence unit. BJP had promised during elections that it would bring back the black money deposited abroad back to India and punish all the tax defaulters. To fulfill it’s this promise, the very first step that Modi government did was that it appointed Justice M.B. Shah as head of the SIT team which would be investigating the black money issue.

Government now has a golden opportunity to fulfill its promises, the SIT must investigate the Panama Leaks and should reveal the names of tax defaulters & they should also be punished according to law.

We cannot tolerate this illegal business of black money and money laundering. Strict message should be given that no one should be spared who are involved in it, whoever it is.

The government all over the world need to co-operate and co-ordinate to bring some changes and reforms to the International economic system and to ensure more transparency in the financial dealings.

Akshay Raina

हैवानियत-ISIS

क्यू आज इंसान अपने अन्दर छुपी इंसानियत को भूलता जा रहा वह क्यू भूलता जा रहा कि अगर एक इंसान को दर्द का एहसास है तो दूसरे को भी है इंसान चाहे जो भी हो जैसा भी हो परन्तु इंसानियत उसमे सबसे बड़ी चीज़ है फ़िर चाहे वह इंसान किसी भी जात या मज़हब से ताअल्लुक़ रखता हो पर आज जो कुछ भी इस दुनिया में हो रहा है उसे देख कर तो नहीँ लगता कि आज इंसानियत एक लुक्मे के बराबर भी बची है;

            जैसा कि हम जानते है आज कल दुनिया को अपनी मुठ्ठी और उन पर हुक्म करने के लिए ISIS अपने चरम पर पहुँच रहा है लेकिन क्या मासूम का खून बहा कर ,औरतों की इज्ज़त उछाल कर या किसी पर जुल्म-ओ-सितम करना ज़ायज़ है.....मुझे तो यह समझ नही आता कि आखिर उनका जमीर उन्हे ऐसा करने की इजाजत कैसे दे सकता है. ISIS अपने ऐसा करने की वजह दुनिया भर में इस्लाम की हुकूमत का बढ़ना बताता है जबकि ऐसा कहा जाता है और ऐसा देखा गया है कि इस्लाम धर्म सुकून का दूसरा नाम है ना कि ज़बरदस्ती हैवानियत और दरिंदगि का...साथ ही साथ ISIS अपने मकसद को जिहाद का नाम दे रहा है जबकि जिहाद का असली मतलब तो स्ट्रगल अर्थात  परिश्रम से है  यदि जिहाद ही करना तो वह माँ की सेवा से भी होगा ना कि जुल्म ढह कर.... किसी भी शक्स पर  गुस्ताखी कर फरेब कर या गर्दन पर शम्शीर रख कर उनके मज़हब या फ़िर अपनी हुकूमत को सर्द-ओ-ताज नही किया जा सकता

    मैं नही जनता कि इस गुट के पीछे हरे झंडे वाले हैं या फिर सफेद और ना ही में यह जानने के लिऐ इक्छायें रखता हूँ मैं बस यह ज़रूर जनता हूँ कि जो भी आज किया जा रहा है वह सही बिल्कुल भी नही है...क्यूकि इसमे कोई एक जिंदगी नही ,कोई एक देश नही ,बल्कि हज़ारों लोगों उन हज़ारों बेगुनाह कि ज़िंदगी को ख़त्म किया जा रहा है

-Rehan Ahmad

WCF 2016-एक राजनीतिक पहलू

श्री श्री रविशंकर की संस्था आर्ट ऑफ लिविंग की ओर से आयोजित विश्व सांस्कृतिक महोत्सव 2016 का रविवार 13 मार्च को समापन हो गया यह आयोजन श्री श्री की संस्था के 35 वर्ष पूरे होने की खुशी में आयोजित किया गया था जिसमें 155 देशों ने अपनी भागीदारी दी थी और इस समारोह में लगभग 35 लाख से अधिक लोग सम्मिलित हुए थे आर्ट ऑफ लिविंग का यह महोत्सव 11 मार्च से 13 मार्च के बीच यमुना की तलहटी पर किया गया  जिसका शुभारम्भ माननीय प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी के कर कमलों द्वारा किया गया 

                  विश्व सांस्कृतिक महोत्सव 2016 के नाम से आयोजित यह समारोह जहाँ राजनीति के घेरे में खड़ा हुआ वही इसने विश्व के कई कीर्तिमान अपनी झोली मे डाले इस महोत्सव को आयोजित करने के लिए जिस भव्य अर्थात विशाल अस्थाई स्टेज का निर्माण किया गया वह 7 एकड़ के फैलाव मे था जो कि 2.5 गुना फीफा के मैदान के बराबर है और इसे 1000 से अधिक मज़दूरों के द्वारा तैयार किया गया था जिस कारणवश इसे गिनीज बुक ऑफ वर्ल्ड रिकॉर्ड मे शामिल करने की सम्भावना है आकर्षण का केंद्र बने इसी स्टेज पर विश्व भर से आये लोगों के द्वारा प्रस्तुति का संगम एक ही मंच पर देखने को मिला 

                 भारत की राजनीति मे अमूमन यह देखने को मिला है कि जब कभी कोई भी व्यक्ति विशेष या कोई संस्था किसी भी माध्यम से देश के हित के लिए कुछ करना चाहता है तो कहीं ना कहीं से उस पर रोक लगाने की पूरी कोशिश की जाती है और यही हुआ श्री श्री के कार्यक्रम विश्व सांस्कृतिक महोत्सव मे...दरअसल यमुना के खादर पर चल रहे इस निजी संस्कृति आयोजन मे सेना के उपयोग करने के लिए राज्यसभा मे जमकर हंगामा किया गया और विपक्ष का कहना था कि कार्यक्रम के द्वारा यमुना के तट एवं बाढ़ की द्रष्टि से सम्वेदनशील खादर मे आयोजन करना एक पर्यावरण आपदा के समान है 

                नेशनल ग्रीन ट्रिब्यूनल के द्वारा श्री श्री के ऊपर यह कार्यक्रम करने के लिए जुर्माना भी लगाया गया जिस पर कड़ा रुख़ करते हुए श्री श्री ने कहा कि "मैं जेल जाना पसंद करूँगा लेकिन हर्जाने की एक पाई भी नही दूँगा" इनके इस बयान पर NGT द्वारा टिप्पणी की गई कि "श्री श्री जैसे ऊँचे कद वाले लोगों पर ऐसी बातें शोभा नही देती यदि कोई भी व्यक्ति ट्रिब्यूनल के खिलाफ़ या उसकी छवि को चोट पहुँचाने की कोशिश करेगा तो उसके खिलाफ़ सख्त से सख्त कार्यवाही की जायगी" इसके तत्पश्चात आर्ट ऑफ लिविंग की ओर से यमुना डूब इलाके मे क्षति  करने के लिए जुर्माना राशि जमा की गई वहीं दूसरी ओर वित्तमंत्री अरुण जेटली द्वारा उस जगह का दौरा किया गया जिसे देख उन्होंने विरोध कर रहे लोगों की निंदा करते हुए कहा कि "इस कार्यक्रम को रोकने का तो बहुत प्रयास किया गया परंतु यहाँ आकर मुझे आभास हुआ कि यहाँ का पर्यावरण तो बहुत सुंदर है"

             यमुना के किनारे चल रहे इस महोत्सव को श्री श्री रविशंकर ने संस्कृति का ओलम्पिक तक करार दिया देश की राजधानी मे आयोजित इस समारोह की चर्चा केवल देश के भीतर ही सीमित न थी अपितु इसकी चर्चा विदेशों मे भी हुई इस भव्य समारोह के अंत मे रविशंकर के द्वारा एक साक्षात्कर मे कहा गया कि इसको आयोजित करने का अनुरोध ऑस्ट्रेलिया एवं मेक्सिको से आया इसके साथ यह भी कहा कि इस सम्पूर्ण आयोजन के दौरान किसी भी प्रकार की पर्यावरण को क्षति नही पहुँची और न ही कोई छोटा पेड़ तक काँटा गया
                 अन्त भला तो सब भला यही आलम था 13 मार्च को समाप्त आर्ट ऑफ लिविंग की ओर से आयोजित विश्व सांस्कृतिक महोत्सव 2016 का जैसे ही इस आयोजन का समापन हुआ साथ ही लोगों की आशंकाओं एवं विरोधों का भी समापन हो गया

                                            

-रेहान अहमद

RESERVATION

Reservation in india is very common it is a process in which a person faciliated in education,job and scholarship.In india the reservation is provided to a particular caste and the reilgion which comes under the minority such as muslims.The caste include SC,ST and OBC,they all get the benefit of reservation policies.But if we talk about reservation percentage as per government of india which is as follows:-SC-15%,ST-7.5%  OBC-27% and for general class 50.5% seats are available not reserved.My point is does this justify? No it cannot be justified. We live in a  democratic society and we the  people have the  power to change  the laws by giving the demand to the government  in a valid way, in a non-violence way.But the question arises here is do  they really need the reservation why we not give the reservation to those people who really need it. the government should make  a criteria for this and should give   reservation to  those people who  needed it the most.In today’s time  also in our country there  are people who can get the benefit from reservation because still there is a lot of backwardness and  poverty. The standard of living, the quality of education is not great at all.An what about the  general people ?Nobody gives a damm  about them. Do they  have  done  anything  wrong  the answer is no they havn’t done anything wrong.But due to reservation they are suffering,especially in education and in job.There are some people who desreve more but due to reservation they are not getting what they deserve due to this reservation system. There is also a negative image in the society for the people who are in reservation catogary which creates an unequality in the society.It is not that the reservation movement is new in india. There has been a lot of movement related to reservation and many people have lost there life due to this movement.if we talk about it’s history, after independence in india.There was lot of backwardness and there was also a lot of discrimination in the society.There was a discrimination of religion,caste and tribe.so the government decided that for the development of a particular section of the society and for india there is need of reservation.Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar was also instrumental for this because he was the person who was in the favour of equality and was in the opposition of untouchability. He was himself born into a poor low dalit caste. But if he was alive today and if he would have seen this violence for reservation without any criteria.He would have been very disappionted.For government it is important to control this siutation otherwise in near future it can be distructive.

-HARSHVARDHAN LOHANI