Tag Archives: clarification

No Religious Bias in GST Law, Clarifies Finance Ministry but Silent on Exemption

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Following uproar in social media that the Good s and services tax (GST) rolled out on July 1, 2017 was against the interests of temple trusts as taxes them heavily while obliterating the presence of Waqf Boards and Churches, the government has clarified that there is no such religious bais in GST.
“There are some messages going around in the social media stating that the temple trusts have to pay the GST while the churches and mosques are exempt. This is completely untrue because no distinction is made in the GST Law on any provision based on religion. We request to people not to start circulating such wrong messages on social media,” said the government in a statement.
Ironic but the ministry did not clarify whether Hindu temples, Sikh Gurudwaras, Mosques and Churches are expemted from GST for the services, especially for free food to pilgrims they provide. Secondly, the GST is silent on temple trusts or boards whose income was in the past exempted in several forms.
Otherwise, GST clearly states that Puja Samagri is exempt from taxation. The provision in GST reads:”Puja samagri including havan samagri will be under the Nil category. However, exact formulation for the same is yet to be finalized.” Taxation on temple trusts, waqf boards and churches will be finalized by the ministry soon.
The government has rolled out the GST from July 1 with a view to introduce uniform indirect taxation system throughout the country, while concessions are given to States in certain areas like entertainment tax that has led to closure of cinema theatres in Tamil Nadu.

Welcoming India, Pakistan Aboard, China Says No Bilateral Issues at Shanghai Group

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Welcoming India and Pakistan into the SCO, China categorically ruled out any bilateral issues cropping up at Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a stand that India avowedly upheld in all multilateral forums.

“As a founding member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), we are very happy about the membership of India and Pakistan,” China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said at a ceremony at the SCO headquarters held to formally admit the two nations as new members of the grouping.

China is a dominant member and host of the 8-member organisation, which includes China, Russia and Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan besides India and Pakistan. Currently, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia are the observers and may soon join as members.

Kong, who attended the ceremony, tried to ally apprehensions aired by media reports on the possibility of bilateral rivalry weakening the organisation the way it has done to saarc. “In the charter of the SCO there is a clause that the hostility between the bilateral relations should not be brought to the organisation. I believe both the countries will abide by the charter of the organisation,” he said.

“Between our member states our interests far outweigh our differences. So, we should not exaggerate the differences between the countries as it is not good for the organisation and cooperation between member states. After becoming members, we all become members of the big family,” he said.

AYUSH Ministry Clarifies on Sex During Pregnancy in Booklets

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With the Indian media going gaga over the brochure on “Mother and Child Care”, published by the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN), the AYUSH ministry has given clarification that the advice to have ‘no sex’ was not true.

Some news reports have drawn an assertion that the booklet puts forward the “prescription” that “pregnant women in India” should “say no to sex after conception”. “This is far from the truth. In fact, the words “no sex” do not feature at all in the booklet,” the AYUSH ministry pointed out in a statement.

Some reports have appeared in the print and electronic media since June 13, 2017 concerning the publication of CCRYN, an autonomous body under the Ministry of AYUSH but these reports are seen to be inaccurate, and some are even seen to misrepresent facts, that forced the Ministry of AYUSH to issue clarification:

It said the booklet puts together relevant and useful information culled out from many years of clinical practice in the fields of Yoga and Naturopathy, keepin in view the health benefits of Yoga and Naturopathy to expecting mothers and new mothers in a simple format.

This publication, which has been in distribution through the units of the erstwhile Department of AYUSH and CCRYN since 2013, and not a recent publication, clarified the statement.

Many new mothers and families have appreciated that information relevant to the different phases of pregnancy has been made available in a simple format in the booklet. The information provided includes diet plans based on clinical experience, simple naturopathy treatments and tips for remaining stress-free during pregnancy.

It also suggests on page 14 of the booklet to avoid certain types of food like tea, coffee, white flour products, fried and oily items and non-veg during pregnancy, which have received selective attention. The suggestion that non-vegetarian food may be avoided (as Yoga & Naturopathy doesn’t advocate non-vegetarian food in its practice) has been singled out for high-lighting in some reports, omitting the mention of white flour products, fried and oily items etc have also been there, said the statement.

The Ministry of AYUSH has urged the media to view the efforts of CCRYN to take the preventive health benefits of Yoga to all sections of the population (including expecting mothers) in the right perspective.

Choice Based Credit System Not to Hamper Academic Liberty, Clarifies UGC

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The UGC has clarified that the introduction of Choice Based Credit System will not in any way hamper the academic liberal environment of the universities, despite rumblings from several institutions and universities in the country.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has been trying to introduce the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS) for quite some time and guidelines have been framed for its effective implementation, which were uploaded in the month of November, 2014. The guidelines per se provide a template to the universities to design the CBCS according to their strength while keeping the overall uniformity among the universities, said the UGC.

The UGC said to keep fairness in assessment and evaluation, it has also given template of procedures to be followed so that the standards of education are equally maintained. Numerous communications have been sent to the Vice-Chancellors (VCs) of all Universities for effective implementation of the system, said UGC refuting allegations made by some varsities on the issue.

Eight Workshops have been held all over India in which VCs of all Central, State and Private Universities participated and the Vice-Chancellors of Central Universities, in the Conference held in February 2015, have given their commitment to the Visitor to implement the same from the academic year 2015-16, said the statement.
This system is already in vogue in some private universities and the new endeavour will bring State Universities and Central Universities at par with international standards so that the pass outs of these universities are not at any disadvantage in comparison to the private universities. It may be noted that none of the Indian universities rank within 100 in Times Higher Education Ranks in the world.

To handhold the Universities, UGCsaid it has embarked on an extensive exercise of designing curricula for undergraduate course which would assimilate with the provisions of CBCS. The syllabi by the experts have been put in the public domain for feedback and for subsequent modification before they are finalised.

The syllabi, once finalised, will give leverage to the universities to modify the same to the extent of 30%, which will be enhanced from 20% after feedback,  depending upon their areas of specialisation.
The UGC has clarified that this is not deviation from the earlier practice where inter-university migration required a minimum 70% equivalency as such implying that the syllabi all over India in undergraduate level are similar to the extent of 70%.
Under the CBCS system the elective subjects so offered will only be from the subjects which are available in the Universities or Institutes and it will not add the teaching load of the teachers beyond the norms stipulated by UGC.

Also there will be no inter-institute/inter-college migration or transfer of teachers and the UGC said it will not suppress the academic liberal environment of the university as nothing contrary has been suggested in the template of the syllabi so designed by the experts.