Corporate tax cuts a ‘panic reaction’ to tide over choppy Sensex: Congress 

Agencies
September 21, 2019

New Delhi, Sept 21: The Congress on Friday termed the corporate tax cut a "panic reaction" by the government and linked it to the 'Howdy Modi' event in Houston, with Rahul Gandhi saying he is amazed at what Narendra Modi can do for a "stock market bump" before the diaspora programme.

The opposition party also claimed that the Modi 2.0 dispensation has turned out to be an "economic and political disaster" and "constant rollbacks" of economic decisions will lead to worsening of the economic situation.

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the latest announcement by BJP government slashing corporate tax worth Rs 1,45,000 crore a year is another "panic reaction to tide over choppy Sensex index, but its implications and substantive issues need to be answered by the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister not through event management but sound economic management".

"This government's path is event management and economic mismanagement. Due to this path, clouds of economic slowdown are hovering over the country. The BJP government is now recognised by slowdown and lockdown," he said.

Questioning the timing of the corporate tax cut announcement, the opposition party alleged that it has been dictated by Modi's 'HowdyModi' event in the United States.

Terming 'HowdyModi' the "world's most expensive event ever", Rahul Gandhi said he is "amazed" at what Prime Minister Modi is ready to do for a stock market bump ahead of the US event.

"Amazing what PM is ready to do for a stock market bump during his Howdy Indian Economy jamboree. At + 1.4 Lakh Crore Rs. the Houston event is the world's most expensive event, ever! But, no event can hide the reality of the economic mess 'HowdyModi' has driven India into (sic)," Gandhi said on Twitter.

The Congress party said on its official Twitter handle, "The constant rollbacks and erratic decisions taken by this government may give the impression of progress through stock market bumps but will further decrease investor confidence and lead to worsening of the economic situation in the country."

Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said Finance Minister's announcements is yet another "knee-jerk" reaction to arrest a "massive" economic slowdown.

"Decision-making cannot be swinging from one extreme, from surcharge to rollback and now slashing of Corporate Tax.

"The Finance Minister should know that this will neither induce private investments nor boost private demand or consumption. The way forward was upfront public investment. From monumental mismanagement of the economy, the government is desperate to deflect and manage headlines," Sharma said.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh welcomed the reductions but expressed doubts on whether the step will revive investment. Asking if it was the prime minister's "trump card", he said the government's move does nothing to dispel the fear that pervades India Inc.

"A headline-itis afflicted, panic-stricken Modi Sarkar has cut corporate tax rates less than 3 months after a Budget and 4 months before the next one. This is welcome but it is doubtful whether investment will revive. This does nothing to dispel fear that pervades in India Inc," Ramesh said on Twitter.

"Timing of FM announcement dictated by #HowdyModi event. PM can now say, 'I have come to Texas promising lower Taxes'. Is this his 'trump card'?," he asked.

Surjewala alleged that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her colleagues are marred by "bankruptcy of ideas" to revive the ailing economy.

"Economic mismanagement, herculean blunders and daily bloopers have cast a shadow upon the economic stability and direction of the country," he said at a press conference.

He also asserted that the worst sufferers of the economic recession are the salaried people, the middle class, the youth, small shopkeepers and small and medium businesses.

"While corporate tax has been slashed by 27% (i.e., 30% tax slab to 22% tax slab), why has a single penny of relief not been given to the honest taxpayers, who bear the actual brunt of the economic mess created by the BJP government?" he asked.

"The Modi government 2.0 has turned out to be an economic and political disaster for India. The looming economic crisis is fast turning into 'BJP-Made Economic Anarchy," he said.

Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Sitharaman must understand that stimuli does not help beyond a certain level, Surjewala said.

"What the economy requires is sound leadership, mature thinking, financial prudence, fiscal discipline and honesty of purpose. The BJP government lacks all of these," he alleged.

"The Modi government 2.0 is - 'one step forward, three steps backward'. Prime Minister and Finance Minister are dealing with economy and livelihood in fits and starts like fledgling novices. Net result is falling GDP, failing exports, shutting down of industry and businesses and loss of millions of jobs," the Congress leader alleged.

"The experimental Prime Minister and the greenhorn Finance Minister" need to tell the nation as to where will the resources to compensate the revenue loss of Rs 1,45,000 crore come from," he asked.

The government on Friday slashed the corporate tax rates for companies.

Surjewala also raised the question as to how will a "run-away" deficit be checked and why were the Prime Minister and Finance Minister making a "mockery" of the entire budget exercise.

He said the budget proposals approved by Parliament have either been rejected or amended or rolled back.

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News Network
May 10,2024

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The Supreme Court Friday granted interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal till June 1 in the excise policy case.

The top court, however, stated that it will be passing a detailed order over the matter soon.

On Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate had opposed the move to grant interim bail to Kejriwal saying that “any special concession” to him will “amount to anathema to the rule of law and equality… thereby creating two separate classes in the country viz. ordinary people, who are bound by the rule of law as well as the laws of the country, and politicians who can seek exemption from the laws”.

The ED had arrested Kejriwal on March 21 in the excise policy case.

“The right to campaign for an election is neither a fundamental right nor a constitutional right and not even a legal right,” the ED said, maintaining that to its knowledge, “no political leader has been granted interim bail for campaigning even though he is not the contesting candidate”.

After the ED filed its affidavit, the AAP, in a press release, said, “The legal team of Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convenor, Shri Arvind Kejriwal, has raised strong objection to the affidavit filed by the Enforcement Directorate opposing interim bail in the Supreme Court.”

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News Network
May 17,2024

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New Delhi: In fresh claim, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that his government sent an envoy to Israel urging them to stop the airstrike in Gaza during Ramadan. He said that he urged Israel to maintain peace rather than engage in combat during the holy month.

In an interview with Aaj Tak, PM Modi said that his envoy told Israel they should not bomb Gaza, at least during the auspicious month of Ramadan.

"During the month of Ramadan, I sent my special envoy to Israel to meet and explain to Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) that he should not carry out bombings in Gaza during Ramadan. They made every effort to follow it, but in the end, there was a fight for 2-3 days," he said.

The Prime Minister said that he does not publicise such things even though people in India keep "cornering him on the Muslims issue".

PM Modi said that some other countries also tried to speak to Israel to halt the bombings and may have also achieved results.

"They may have got the results too. I also tried," he said.

During the interview, PM Modi also said that he made standalone visits to both Israel and Palestine, unlike earlier governments which used to display token secularism.

"There was a fashion earlier that if one has to go to Israel, a visit to Palestine is a must. Do secularism and come back. But I refused to do it," he said.

The Prime Minister also recounted an episode when he needed to travel to Palestine via Jordan.

"When the President of Jordan, who is a direct descendent of Prophet Muhammad, came to know that I am going to Palestine over (the airspace of Jordan), he told me 'Modi ji, you cannot go like this. You are my guest and will use my helicopter'," Modi claimed.

Describing the unique amalgamation of circumstances, he continued, "I went to his home for dinner, but the helicopter was of Jordan, the destination was Palestine, and I was escorted by Israeli flight attendants. All three are different but for Modi, all came together in the sky."

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News Network
May 17,2024

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In scorching heat on a busy Kolkata street last month, commuters sought refuge inside a glass-walled bus shelter where two air conditioners churned around stifling air. Those inside were visibly sweating, dabbing at their foreheads in sauna-like temperatures that were scarcely cooler than out in the open.

Local authorities initially had plans to install as many as 300 of the cooled cabins under efforts to improve protections from a heat season that typically runs from April until the monsoon hits the subcontinent in June. There are currently only a handful in operation, and some have been stripped of their AC units, leaving any users sweltering.

“It doesn’t work,” Firhad Hakim, mayor of the city of 1.5 crore, said on a searing afternoon when temperatures topped 40C. “You feel suffocated.”

Attempts in Kolkata and across India to improve resilience to extreme heat have often been equally ill-conceived, despite a death toll estimated at more than 24,000 since 1992. Inconsistent or incomplete planning, a lack of funding, and the failure to make timely preparations to shield a population of 140 crore are leaving communities vulnerable as periods of extreme temperatures become more frequent, longer in duration and affect a wider sweep of the country.

Kolkata, with its hot, humid climate and proximity to the Bay of Bengal, is particularly vulnerable to temperature and rainfall extremes, and ranked by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as among the global locations that are most at risk.

An increase in average global temperatures of 2C could mean the city would experience the equivalent of its record 2015 heat waves every year, according to the IPCC. High humidity can compound the impacts, as it limits the human body’s ability to regulate its temperature.

Even so, the city — one of India's largest urban centres — still lacks a formal strategy to handle heat waves.

Several regions across India will see as many as 11 heat wave days this month compared to 3 in a typical year, while maximum temperatures in recent weeks have already touched 47.2C in the nation’s east, according to the Indian Meteorological Department. Those extremes come amid the Lok Sabha election during which high temperatures are being cited as among the factors for lower voter turnout.

At SSKM Hospital, one of Kolkata’s busiest, a waiting area teemed last month with people sheltering under colorful umbrellas and thronging a coin-operated water dispenser to refill empty bottles. A weary line snaked back from a government-run kiosk selling a subsidized lunch of rice, lentils, boiled potato and eggs served on foil plates.

“High temperatures can cause heat stroke, skin rashes, cramps and dehydration,” said Niladri Sarkar, professor of medicine at the hospital. “Some of these can turn fatal if not attended to on time, especially for people that have pre-existing conditions.” Extreme heat has an outsized impact on poorer residents, who are often malnourished, lack access to clean drinking water and have jobs that require outdoor work, he said.

Elsewhere in the city, tea sellers sweltered by simmering coal-fired ovens, construction workers toiled under a blistering midday sun, and voters attending rallies for the ongoing national elections draped handkerchiefs across their faces in an effort to stay cool. The state government in April advised some schools to shutter for an early summer vacation to avoid the heat.

Since 2013, states, districts and cities are estimated to have drafted more than 100 heat action plans, intended to improve their ability to mitigate the effects of extreme temperatures. The Centre set out guidelines eight years ago to accelerate adoption of the policies, and a January meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority pledged to do more to strengthen preparedness.

The absence of such planning in Kolkata has also meant a failure to intervene in trends that have made the city more susceptible.

Almost a third of the city’s green cover was lost during the decade through 2021, according to an Indian government survey. Other cities including Mumbai and Bengaluru have experienced similar issues. That’s combined with a decline in local water bodies and a construction boom to deliver an urban heat island effect, according to Saira Shah Halim, a parliamentary candidate in the Kolkata Dakshin electoral district in the city’s south. “What we’re seeing today is a result of this destruction,” she said.

Hakim, the city’s mayor, disputes the idea that Kolkata’s preparations have lagged, arguing recent extreme weather has confounded local authorities. “Such a kind of heat wave is new to us, we’re not used to it,” he said. “We’re locked with elections right now. Once the elections are over, we’ll sit with experts to work on a heat action plan.”

Local authorities are currently ensuring adequate water supplies, and have put paramedics on stand-by to handle heat-induced illnesses, Hakim said.

Focusing on crisis management, rather than on better preparedness, is at the root of the country’s failings, according to Nairwita Bandyopadhyay, a Kolkata-based climatologist and geographer. “Sadly the approach is to wait and watch until the hazard turns into a disaster,” she said.

Even cities and states that already have heat action plans have struggled to make progress in implementing recommendations, the New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Policy Research said in a report last year reviewing 37 of the documents.

Most policies don’t adequately reflect local conditions, they often lack detail on how action should be funded and typically don’t set out a source of legal authority, according to the report.

As many as 9 people have already died as a result of heat extremes this year, according to the meteorological department, though the figure is likely to significantly underestimate the actual total. That follows about 110 fatalities during severe heat waves during April and June last year, the World Meteorological Organization said last month.

Even so, the handling of extreme heat has failed to become a “political lightning rod that can stir governments into action,” said Aditya Valiathan Pillai, among authors of the CPR study and now a fellow at New Delhi-based Sustainable Futures Collaborative.

Modi's government has often moved to contain criticism of its policies, and there is also the question of unreliable data. “When deaths occur, one is not sure whether it was directly caused by heat, or whether heat exacerbated an existing condition,” Pillai said.

In 2022, health ministry data showed 33 people died as a result of heat waves, while the National Crime Records Bureau – another agency that tracks mortality statistics – reported 730 fatalities from heat stroke.

Those discrepancies raise questions about a claim by the Centre that its policies helped cut heat-related deaths from 2,040 in 2015 to 4 in 2020, after national bureaucrats took on more responsibility for disaster risk management.

Local officials in Kolkata are now examining potential solutions and considering the addition of more trees, vertical gardens on building walls and the use of porous concrete, all of which can help combat urban heat.

India’s election is also an opportunity to raise issues around poor preparations, according to Halim, a candidate for the Communist Party of India (Marxist), whose supporters carry bright red flags at campaign events scheduled for the early morning and after sundown to escape extreme temperatures.

“I’m mentioning it,” she said. “It’s become a very, very challenging campaign. The heat is just insufferable.”

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