GDP may slow down if GST implemented in hurry: Tax officials to FM

January 22, 2017

New Delhi, Jan 22: Claiming that demonetisation has affected country's growth, a major central revenue body has asked Finance Minister Arun Jaitley not to implement Goods and Services Tax (GST) in a hurry and threatened to take legal recourse in case their concerns are not addressed.

It termed as "illegal" certain decisions taken by Jaitley-headed GST Council and demanded that they be corrected. It also sought that the officer's body be consulted before any final decision is taken.

The Council in its meeting on January 16, had agreed to give states the powers to levy tax on economic activity within 12 nautical miles of territorial waters.

Also, it was decided that the states will have powers to assess and administer 90 per cent of the tax payers under Rs 1.5 crore annual turnover, while the remaining would be controlled by the Centre.

In a letter to Jaitley, the All India Association of Group B Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers, said the decision to transfer 90 per cent of service tax assessees to states is not supported by any lawful and logical base and therefore, the decisions taken by GST Council should be withdrawn immediately.

"Needless to say, any judicial intervention in the illegal decisions taken by GST Council, and if implemented by the Centre, would cause unnecessary delay in the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

"It is further added that due to demonetisation of old bank notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, the GDP of the country is expected to fall at least 1 per cent (from 7.6 estimated to 6.6 per cent, as reviewed), and in case implementation of GST is delayed further, due to judicial scrutiny of the illegal decisions taken by GST Council, the country may suffer economically as the GDP may further slow down," it said.

It said the GST Council has not been conferred upon any power by the Constitution to recommend transfer of rights or allowing levy and collection of IGST (which deals in levy on inter-state supply including stock transfers of goods or services) to states.

It said the area in sea (territorial waters) up to 12 nautical miles from the coastline falls within the territory of India and therefore, the powers to tax transactions in such areas are vested in the Union Government.

"The decision taken by the GST Council to empower states to levy state GST or central GST or IGST, as the case may be, is in gross violation of the constitutional provisions," the association said.

The GST is likely to be rolled out from July 1, as against April 1 decided earlier by the government.

There is no logic or rationale, legally, to transfer the 90 per cent GST assessees to states for the purpose of audit and assessment, it said.

"Moreover, the service tax assessees falling within the annual turnover limit of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore are at present being assessed by the Centre smoothly. By transferring of 90 per cent of these assessees to states for levy and collection of SGST and CGST, the officers of the Centre would become work-less," the association said in the letter.

The transparency in collection of CGST from these 90 per cent assessees may be compromised in the hands of state officers, said the body which claims to represent about 50,000 Group B and Group C tax employees.

"Would the Centre like to empower CBI and CVC to have their jurisdiction upon states' officers also for any laxity or compromise by these officers in revenue collection of CGST?
"Would states allow these organisations to interfere in the functioning of their officers? Does the GST Council take guarantee that any laxity or collusion with the trades, and compromise to collect CGST revenue would be investigated by CBI and CVC in case of states' officers?" it asked.

The association "condemns and opposes the illegal decisions" taken by the GST Council and expresses anguish among its members over the transfer of their taxing powers to state officers, the letter said.

"You are requested to please take immediate necessary action to resolve these issues. Otherwise, the association will call for a meeting of its all members and pass a resolution to oppose the decisions taken by the GST Council, initiate non-cooperation movement towards implementation of GST, and may also take legal course of action to protect the levy and collection powers of the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC).

"Any such decisions taken by GST Council, without prior consultation from the associations of affected officers of CBEC, would be agitated, leading to country-wide protest agitation against the decisions taken by the GST Council, unilaterally," it said.

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IndiGo offers full waiver on cancellations, reschedule requests for bookings between Dec 5 and 15

News Network

December 6,2025

With IndiGo flight disruptions impacting thousands of passengers, the airline on Saturday said that it will offer full waiver on all cancellations/reschedule requests for travel bookings between December 5, 2025 and December 15, 2025.

Earlier in the day, the civil aviation ministry had directed the airline to complete the ticket refund process for the cancelled flights by Sunday evening, as well as ensure baggage separated from the travellers are delivered in the next two days.

In a post on X, titled 'No questions asked', IndiGo wrote, "In response to recent events, all refunds for your cancellations will be processed automatically to your original mode of payment."

"We are deeply sorry for the hardships caused," it further added.

Several passengers, however, complained of not getting full refund as promised by the airline.

Netizens have shared screenchots of getting charged for airline cancellation fee and convenience fee.

"Please tell me why u have did this airline cancellation charges when u say full amount will be refunded (sic)," a user wrote sharing a screenshot of the refund page.

"Well, but you have still debited the convenience charges," wrote another.

Passengers have also raised concerns about the "cancel" option being disabled on the IndiGo app. "First enable the 'Cancel' button on your App & offer full refund on tickets cancelled by customers between the said dates," wrote a user.

A day after the country's largest airline, IndiGo, cancelled more than 1,000 flights and caused disruptions for the fifth day on Saturday, the ministry said that any delay or non-compliance in refund processing will invite immediate regulatory action.

The refund process for all cancelled or disrupted flights must be completed by 8 pm on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement.

"Airlines have also been instructed not to levy any rescheduling charges for passengers whose travel plans were affected by cancellations," it said.

On Saturday, more than 400 flights were cancelled at various airports.

IndiGo has also been instructed to set up dedicated passenger support and refund facilitation cells.

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Average age of school children picking up drugs, smoking habit in 10 Indian cities around 13 years!

News Network

December 13,2025

New Delhi: School-going children are picking up drug and smoking habits and engaging in consumption of alcohol, with the average age of introduction to such harmful substances found to be around 13 years, suggesting a need for earlier interventions as early as primary school, a multi-city survey by AIIMS-Delhi said.

The findings also showed substance use increased in higher grades, with grade XI/XII students two times more likely to report use of substances when compared with grade VIII students. This emphasised the importance of continued prevention and intervention through middle and high school.

The study led by Dr Anju Dhawan of AIIMS's National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, published in the National Medical Journal of India this month, looks at adolescent substance use across diverse regions.

The survey included 5,920 students from classes 8, 9, 11 and 12 in urban government, private and rural schools across 10 cities -- Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Ranchi. The data were collected between May 2018 and June 2019.

The average age of initiation for any substance was 12.9 (2.8) years. It was lowest for inhalants (11.3 years) followed by heroin (12.3 years) and opioid pharmaceuticals (without prescription; 12.5 years).

Overall, 15.1 per cent of participants reported lifetime use, 10.3 per cent reported past year use, and 7.2 per cent reported use in the past month of any substance, the study found.

The most common substances used in the past year, after tobacco (4 per cent) and alcohol (3.8 per cent), were opioids (2.8 per cent), followed by cannabis (2 per cent) and inhalants (1.9 per cent). Use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids was most common among opioid users (90.2 per cent).

On being asked, 'Do you think this substance is easily available for a person of your age' separately for each substance category, nearly half the students (46.3 per cent) endorsed that tobacco products and more than one-third of the students (36.5 per cent) agreed that a person of their age can easily procure alcohol products.

Similarly, for Bhang (21.9 per cent), ganja/charas (16.1 per cent), inhalants (15.2 per cent), sedatives (13.7 per cent), opium and heroin (10 per cent each), the students endorsed that these can be easily procured.

About 95 per cent of the children, irrespective of their grade, agreed with the statement that 'drug use is harmful'.

The rates of substance use (any) among boys were significantly higher than those of girls for substance use (ever), use in the past year and use in the past 30 days. Compared to grade VIII students, grade IX students were more likely, and grade XI/XII students were twice as likely to have used any substance (ever).

The likelihood of past-year use of any substance was also higher for grade IX students and for grade XI/XII students as compared to grade VIII students.

About 40 per cent of students mentioned that they had a family member who used tobacco or alcohol each. The use of cannabis (any product) and opioid (any product) by a family member was reported by 8.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent of students, respectively, while the use of other substances, such as inhalants/sedatives by family was 2-3 per cent, the study found.

A relatively smaller percentage of students reported use of tobacco or alcohol among peers as compared to among family members, while a higher percentage reported inhalants, sedatives, cannabis or opioid use among peers.

Children using substances (past year) compared to non-users reported significantly higher any substance use by their family members and peers.

There were 25.7 per cent students who replied 'yes' to the question 'conflicts/fights often occur in your family'. Most students also replied affirmatively to 'family members are aware of how their time is being spent' and 'damily members are aware of with whom they spend their time'.

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