20 September 2019: PIB Summary & Analysis

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September 20th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

Prime Minister gets Global Goalkeepers Goals Award 2019

Context:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred upon the Global Goalkeepers Goals Award 2019 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Details:

• Started by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2017, Goalkeepers is a catalyst for action towards 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
• ‘Goalkeepers’ brings leaders from all over the world together and works towards fighting inequality and ending poverty.
• Prime Minister Modi is being conferred upon this award for his work in sanitation through the Swachh Bharat Mission.

37^th GST Council Meeting

Context:

The 37^th GST Council met on 20^th September 2019 in Goa. It was chaired by the Finance Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman.

Key Recommendations:

• Relaxations in annual returns filing for MSMEs for the financial year 2017 – 18 and 2018 – 19.
• A committee of officers would be appointed for examining the simplification of forms for annual return and reconciliation statement.
• Extension of the last date for filing of appeals against orders of the Appellate Authority before the GST Appellate Tribunal as the Appellate Tribunals are yet not functional.
• The new return system would be introduced from April 2020 instead of the previously proposed October 2019.
• Suitable amendments would be made to the CGST Act, UTGST Act and corresponding SGST Acts in view of the creation of the union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.
• Integrated refund system with disbursal by a single authority to be introduced from 24th September 2019.
• The Council also took an in-principle decision to link Aadhaar with the registration of taxpayers under GST and also to examine the possibility of making the 12-digit unique identification number mandatory for claiming refunds.
• Changes were also made to the GST rates for various goods and services.

About the GST Council:

• The Goods and Services Tax Council is a constitutional body for making recommendations to the Union and State Governments on issues related to Goods and Service Tax.
• It is chaired by the Union Finance Minister.
• The other members are the Union State Minister of Revenue or Finance, and Ministers in-charge of Finance or Taxation of all the States.

ERSS- Dial 112, ‘E-Beat Book’ System and ‘E-Saathi’ App

Context:

The Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah launched three citizen-centric services of the Chandigarh Police which are ERSS- Dial 112, ‘E-Beat Book’ System and ‘E-Saathi’ App, in Chandigarh.

ERSS:

• ERSS stands for Emergency Response Support System.
• ERSS is one of the key projects of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under the Nirbhaya Fund.
• ERSS provides a single emergency number (112), and a computer-aided dispatch of field resources to the location of distress.
• Citizens can send their emergency information through call, SMS, email and through the 112 India mobile app.

Dial 112:

• Till now, there were more than 20 emergency helpline numbers, for various kinds of emergencies needing the help of rescue forces in the domains of fire, health, police, etc.
• This was ineffective since the public would often get confused with the numbers and end up wasting time calling the wrong emergency service.
• To avoid this, the Dial 112 is created, which is a single number for immediate assistance services from police (100), health (108), fire (101), and women (1090).
• Initially, 16 states and Union Territories are planning to roll-out the service.
• In the future, more emergency services would be covered in this initiative.

E-Beat Book:

• It is a web and mobile-based application which will ease the collection, updation and analysis of information related to crime and criminals in real-time.
• The E-Beat Book would be linked with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS), which would help in real-time updation of crime/criminal data.
• Every Beat Officer would be having an android phone to use the App.

‘E-Saathi’ App:

• This App is intended to help the general public, including senior citizens, to remain in touch with the police and also give suggestions to facilitate participative community policing.
• The beat officer would be able to provide services like passport verification, tenant verification, servant verification, character certification, etc. at a click of a button through the App, without people needing to visit the police station.

Related Links:

September 20th, 2019 PIB:-Download PDF Here

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