11 June 2019: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

Read the daily PIB update and stay up-to-date on current affairs for the UPSC exam

June 11th 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

Foreigners Tribunals

Context

  • The Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 was issued by the Central Government under Section 3 of The Foreigners Act, 1946. The last amendment was issued in May, 2019.

Amendment

  • The May 2019 amendment only lays down the modalities for the Tribunals to decide on appeals made by persons not satisfied with the outcome of claims and objections filed against the NRC.
  • Since NRC work is going on only in Assam, therefore, the order is applicable only to Assam as on date for all practical purposes.
  • Since the Foreigners Tribunals under this order have been established only in Assam and in no other state of the country, this amendment in effect is going to be relevant only to Assam at present.

Clarification regarding overestimation of India’s GDP growth

Context

Reports have appeared in a section of media citing Dr Arvind Subramanian as regards overestimation of India’s GDP growth, primarily based on an analysis of indicators, like

  • Electricity consumption,
  • Two-wheeler sales,
  • Commercial vehicle sales etc using an econometric model and associated assumptions.

Regarding GDP estimation

  • The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation has released details from time to time to explain the complexities involved in GDP compilation.
  • The estimation of GDP in any economy is a complex exercise where several measures and metrics are evolved to better measure the performance of the economy
  • For the purpose of global standardization and comparability, countries follow the System of National Accounts evolved in the UN after elaborate consultation.
  • The System of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) is the latest version of the international statistical standard for the national accounts, adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC)
  • The Inter-Secretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA) was mandated to develop the 2008 SNA through intense discussions and consultation with member countries.

Challenges to comply with SNA

  • As with any international standard, the data requirements are immense and diverse economies like India take time to evolve the relevant data sources before they can be fully aligned with the SNA requirements.
  • In absence of data, alternate proxy sources or statistical surveys are used to estimate the contribution of various sectors to the GDP/GVA.

Base year revision

  • The SNA also prescribes that the base year of the estimates may be revised at periodic intervals so that changes in the economic environment, advances in methodological research and the needs of users are appropriately captured.
  • With structural changes taking place in the economy, it is necessary to revise the base year of macroeconomic indicators like
    • Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
    • Index of Industrial Production (IIP),
    • Consumer Price Index (CPI) etc,
    • Periodically to ensure that indicators remain relevant and reflect the structural changes more realistically.
  • Such revisions not only use latest data from censuses and surveys, they also incorporate information from administrative data that have become more robust over time.
  • In India, the Base Year of the GDP Series was revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12 and released on 30 January, 2015 after adaptation of the sources and methods in line with the SNA 2008.

Accuracy of national accounts estimates

  • According to the World Bank, the accuracy of national accounts estimates and their comparability across countries depend on timely revisions to data on GDP and its components.
  • The frequency of revisions to GDP data across countries varies between monthly, quarterly, annually or even less frequently.
  • The International Monetary Fund (IMF), through its technical missions also reviews the implementation of recommendations of SNA and provides necessary technical support
  • With any Base Revision, as new and more regular data sources become available, it is important to note that a comparison of the old and new series are not amenable to simplistic macro-econometric modelling.
  • It may also be seen that the GDP growth projections brought out by various national and international agencies are broadly in line with the estimates released by MOSPI.
  • The GDP estimates released by the Ministry are based on accepted procedures, methodologies and available data and objectively measure the contribution of various sectors in the economy.

Transition plan to the new GST Return

Context

The GST Council has decided that a new GST return system will be introduced to facilitate taxpayers.

About the New system

  • The GST Council’s decision to allow taxpayers with an annual turnover of less than ₹5 crore to file quarterly returns.
  • But this will not benefit the small taxpayers as much as expected.
  • The move may seem beneficial for small taxpayers as it reduces their compliance burden in terms of how often they have to file the returns.
  • This benefit will be offset by the burden imposed by the regularity with which they will have to pay taxes and upload invoices.
  • GST returns will be filed on a quarterly basis by the small taxpayers and on a monthly basis by the larger taxpayers.
  • However, the issue again for small taxpayers is the payment of tax has been fixed on monthly basis.
  • Further, to ensure that the large taxpayers get their input tax credit on monthly basis, the small taxpayers will also have to upload their sales invoices on monthly basis.
  • Hence, the compliance level may reduce a bit but not substantially for the small taxpayers.
  • The other benefit from this approach is the reduction in the load on the GST Network servers at any given point.
  • Taxpayers can rejoice with the number of returns coming down from 36 returns a year to a half, that is, five in a year for quarterly filing or 13 in a year in the case of monthly filing.

Also Read:

Read previous ‘Best of PIB’ here.

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