116th birth anniversary of Sardar Gouthu Latchanna celebrated in Visakhapatnam
Marking the occasion, Andhra Pradesh BC Employees Federation state president Polaki Srinivasa Rao garlanded Latchanna's statue at Green Park Hotel Junction. He recalled that Latchanna, who was born in Palasa, Srikakulam district, had joined the freedom movement at the young age of 17. At 33, he actively participated in the Quit India movement, leading the people of South India in the struggle for independence.
Srinivasa Rao noted that Latchanna had the rare distinction of being elected MLA five times, as well as an MP and MLC simultaneously. He also played a pivotal role in organising the All India Kisan Mahasabha in Andhra Pradesh, championing the cause of farmers and the oppressed.
Buridi Kalyani, president of the AP State BC Employees Women's Wing, highlighted that Latchanna was equally committed to eradicating untouchability and worked tirelessly for the upliftment of the downtrodden.
Visakhapatnam East ACP K. Lakshmanamurthy and Visakhapatnam South MLA Ch. Vamsikrishna Srinivas Yadav also spoke on the occasion, paying tributes to the leader and his enduring legacy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
2 days ago
- India Today
India's GST journey: Bumps in the fast lane
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated July 10, 2017)Midnight sessions of India's Parliament are reserved to ring in events of great significance, beginning with India's independence on August 15, 1947, and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's 'tryst with destiny' speech. Since then, Parliament has commemorated midnight sessions for only two other events-the golden jubilees of the Quit India movement in 1992 and of India's independence in the NDA to choose a special midnight session to roll out its landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST) signifies the enormous symbolism bestowed on this biggest of tax reforms. GST will free India of its archaic, multi-layered tax structure with a regime that will create a single market across the country. It will unify all the states with a single tax rate and reduce the interface with tax inspectors, setting the stage for a 'new normal', as Union finance minister Arun Jaitley puts it. In anticipation of the new normal are anxious traders and businessmen, who are grappling with the fine print of the new tax, the prospect of an anti-profiteering agency and an electronic system that will now rate taxpayers on how promptly they upload their invoices, pay taxes and file India's most significant tax reform since independence, GST comes after 13 years of deliberations and dithering. It is considered transformational as it not only envisages a "one nation, one tax" policy that makes life simpler for the common man, but also builds transparency and accountability in the tax collection process. It aims to curb tax evasion in a country where small traders/ businesses routinely evade tax by not creating invoices for goods sold. It is also transformational because what is seemingly an economic decision took intense political manoeuvring, bringing the states on board with a 'give and take' negotiation that has arguably diluted the bill in the process. GST is expected to be as disruptive as the recent demonetisation move, which was touted as a drive against black money but ended up hurting the country's growth in the final quarter (it fell from 7.1 per cent to 6.1 per cent) of financial year 2016-17. And the jury is still out on it."GST is a mammoth exercise in which you will, in the first instance, converge multiple taxes into one," an upbeat Jaitley told INDIA TODAY in an exclusive interview. "Second, you fix the rate for every commodity and for every service. You will have free flow of goods and services across the country." In addition, there will be a new system for filing returns. Nobody will have to pay tax on tax, so the cascading impact of taxation is history. Moreover, the state governments will still have higher collections because of a more efficient system (in the long run), and also because the Centre will compensate for any shortfall in the first five CASE FOR GSTNo doubt, there is a strong case for simplification of the country's indirect tax system. There is now a multiplicity of taxes-both central (customs, excise and service tax, for instance) and state (value-added tax, purchase tax, entry tax, octroi and so on), which have a cascading effect on prices. Under GST, multiple taxes will converge into one. Doing away with the cascading effect of the various taxes should ensure that the consumer pays a more reasonable price for a product or optimism comes in the midst of concerns that GST is still not optimal, in the sense that the layers are still too many. Taxes will henceforth range from 0 to 28 per cent (with 3, 5, 12 and 18 per cent in between) plus cesses. But the finance minister lays down his reasons for having those slabs. "Not having multiple slabs would be highly inflationary and discriminatory," he says. "Would you charge a hawai chappal and a BMW car at the same rate? It will be inequitable."advertisementIMPACT ON THE CONSUMERSo, what does GST, in its current form, mean to the end-customer? Ideally, GST should have had a uniform impact on all sectors, but experts say this will not be the case. Abhishek Jain, tax partner with Ernst & Young (EY), says some goods will become cheaper, and others dearer, in the new tax regime. The indirect tax cost on most goods is currently on the higher side, since they attract an excise duty of 12.5 per cent and a VAT of 12.5 to 15 per cent, depending on the state (for instance, beauty products, most consumer electronics, non-luxury automobiles). Along with the cascading effect of other state taxes, the combined effect amounts to a burden of 25 to 30 per cent indirect tax on the end- customer. However, under GST, the tax would be only 18 per cent, lowering prices for the in some other cases, as in textiles, edible oil and low-value footwear, the excise rate is zero and VAT in most states is 5 per cent. So, if GST of, say, 18 per cent is imposed on these products, the price rise would be significant for the the services front, where the indirect tax is 15 per cent, an increase in GST to 18 per cent could have hurt the consumer. But Jain says that services are already costlier after imposition of some non-creditable taxes on the procurement side (such as VAT or CST). When these non-creditable taxes become creditable (i.e., when a businessman can reduce the taxes he paid while buying the goods from what he will have to pay for selling it), it should help neutralise the price government, perhaps cognisant of the disruptive effect, is wary of hazarding any predictions on prices. "We haven't worked out any estimates. This (price reduction) is subject to the fact that all those who get input tax credit calculate it correctly and pass on the benefit to the consumer," says revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia. Input tax credit, the cornerstone of GST, is a tax refund on the portion of final cost of goods and services that one has already and ratings firm Crisil has estimated that only 20 per cent of the elements in the CPI basket (goods used to calculate consumer price index, the weighted average of prices, to measure inflation) will see a rise in tax rates. These are mostly services, which will see some inflation. For the rest, tax incidence is down and the price effect will be neutral. However, there is a catch here. Producers will be quick to pass on the hike in taxes, but perhaps not the tax reductions, leading to profiteering. And that's where the proposed anti-profiteering agency will come into play."It is also possible that there will be confusion on whether the price rise is due to GST or a general rise in prices, since inflation is not going to continue at the low levels of 2.5 per cent for long," says D.K. Joshi, chief economist, Crisil. Even RBI estimates suggest that inflation will rise in the second half of the year, he adds. Most studies show that, in the medium term, GST brings inflation down due to the efficiencies created in the system, such as a reduction in logistics TAX EVASIONExperts say that pre-GST, traders evaded taxes since they were not eligible for many credits. They bought goods from someone who was also exempted from VAT, and thus a shadow economy was operational. Under GST, these traders will be eligible for credit on central duties paid on inputs. If they don't declare transactions, they will lose these credits. "Traders will cheat less because it will be profitable not to cheat," says V.S. Krishnan, advisor, tax policy, is also likely that there will be more direct tax compliance after GST. This is facilitated by the GST identification number (GSTIN)-a 15-digit code. Nobody except those exempted can carry out any business in India without this GST number, the first few digits of which are the state numbers, the next the income tax PAN. By adopting the income tax PAN and incorporating it into the GSTIN, the indirect tax database and the direct tax database have been linked. This makes it very difficult to cheat under GST. Adi Godrej, chairman, Godrej group, is enthused: "In the new GST regime, evasion will come down and it will lead to much better collections. It will also help exports a lot because all input taxes will get refunded."There are varying estimates on the impact on GDP. HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh believes the GST regime can push up India's growth by as much as 1.5 to 2 percentage points. Others like tax expert Satya Poddar say that GST will not be inflationary but will not lead to economic growth either. "Disruption in transition could be the same as demonetisation," he if the GDP base widens, tax collections will increase as well, and some economists expect the fiscal deficit to come down to 0.7 to 1.2 per cent of the GDP in five years. Crisil believes that industry stabilisation under the new tax regime will take a couple of quarters. The experience of other economies is that it's better to make a start and then make adjustments. But then, most countries that have adopted GST have ensured a single slab for all goods and services. Some countries like New Zealand started at a low rate and then raised it subsequently. However, in countries like Malaysia, the process took a long time to implement. Later, there were public protests in Malaysia demanding GST be scrapped, even a year after it was rolled out on April 1, AHEADIn a country as diverse as India, with its inherent inefficiencies in governance, slack technology adoption and poor track record in accountability, the challenges for implementing the GST will be huge. Businesses are flummoxed by the distortionary and complicated system to claim input tax credits-for instance, an airline can claim input credit on an engine for its business class passengers but not for economy passengers. In fact, budget airlines will not be able to claim input tax credit, but as a respite, tax incidence for them has been reduced from six per cent to five per cent while for business travel, the tax rate has been increased from 9 per cent to 12 per root of this distortion, aviation experts say, is that aviation turbine fuel has been kept out of the purview of GST. And this is just one of the many exemptions that in a way distorts the core of what ought to have been GST. States have managed to arm-twist the Centre to keep petro products and electricity out of the ambit of GST to safeguard revenues. Therefore, even as energy is an essential cost to economic activity, businesses will not be able to claim refunds on tax paid on energy used as input in their experts say India has lost an opportunity to have a wide GST base, which was the recommendation of the 13th Finance Commission. Real estate has been brought under GST only partially through works contracts, to be taxed at 12 per cent. Suresh Raheja, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur, says home buyers will end up paying more. "The price of a Rs 50 lakh flat could go up by Rs 3.5 lakh after GST," he not all that bothers businesses. Another big concern is the three tax levies-in the form of state GST, Centre GST and integrated GST, multiple cesses and a rate classification with different variants of single products taxed under different slabs. For instance, biscuits with chocolate attract a higher tax, a garment under Rs 1,000 will attract 5 per cent GST and above Rs 1,000, 12 per cent. Fabric will attract 5 per cent. So, if a garment above Rs 1,000 goes on sale in the evening and if its after-sale price is below Rs 1,000, will it be taxed differently? "Ideally, it (GST) should have been a single tax rate of 12 per cent with no exemptions and variations in the tax rate," laments Poddar. He surmises that the complexity of the GST regime is a consequence of the government following the path of least is also a widespread apprehension that the tax filing procedure for manufacturers is too cumbersome. "I have taken (GST) registration. But I've no idea how it's going to affect my business," says R. Ramesh, who owns a provisions store in Thiruvananthapuram. "Earlier, we used to file monthly returns to the tax department and hired a local tax consultant for filing returns. Now it's online filing and I've no idea how many returns I have to file in a year."THE COMPLEX GST DESIGNThe biggest challenge is going to be that of technology. It is expected that there will be 8 million GSTN assessees. Of this, 7 million will be small and medium businesses. For these businesses, GST has worked out an offline format, something on the lines of a Microsoft Excel sheet. The returns have to be sent offline, the GSTN captures it and converts into the online form. But the problem with this is that if the person who files makes errors, it will be difficult to revise it the invoice will have to be validated by the vendor for input tax credit to be evaluated and claimed. This can be cumbersome. China, for instance, has a far simpler mechanism. Every time a business wants to claim input tax credit, the invoice has to be issued on the 'golden tax machine', designed and owned by the government. This automatically guarantees that invoices are valid and unique, substantially bringing down the risk of invalid credit readiness has been one of the biggest worries cited by the government. GSTN or the Goods and Services Network is a not-for-profit firm owned by the central and state governments and private financial institutions, with the mandate to establish a uniform interface for the taxpayer and a common and shared IT infrastructure for the Centre and states. It has the task of building the IT backbone, on which hinges the smooth functioning of the Rs 1,400 crore has been earmarked for the network, to be used for filing GST returns and for claiming input credits. Navin Kumar, chairman, GST Network, iterates that the network is ready for a July 1 rollout. He goes on to add that constant revisions have meant reconfiguration of the system a few times. There are two aspects to the network-the GSTN platform and the states' network. Of the 29 states, nine are building their own systems, while GSTN, a platform built by Infosys, is helping the others to become GST many as three billion invoices will have to uploaded by the 10th of every month. If there is a breakdown in one state, the entire process could get stalled. While Kerala and West Bengal used the ordinance route to pass the legislation, J&K is yet to pass the state GST act. And Jaitley is stridently critical of the government there, saying the decision to abstain "is a conspiracy against the Kashmiri people. Consumers will pay tax twice over... they will not get a rupee out of the promised five-year compensation".MORE WORK TO DOOf course, there is an admission of the fact that the tax is not perfect. Adhia explains: "We have imperfections in the current system. Ideally, we should not have any 28 per cent rate, but right now, that is the tax incidence and we want to make it revenue neutral." Over a period, India must reach the international standard where there is a single or two GST rates, he Sinha, MoS for civil aviation, has been handling representations from airlines on the new tax rules which they say will hurt their competitiveness, and asking for a postponement. He insists, though, that most issues have been resolved. On the question of being GST-ready for ticketing and cargo services, he says service tax rules will be followed here as well. "GST will be a platform that will enable a virtuous compliance spiral to take effect," he the widespread apprehension traders have towards moving to the GST network overnight, the government has simplified things a bit for the trading community. Traders with annual revenues of up to Rs 20 lakh need not register under the GST network. Moreover, a business entity with a turnover of up to Rs 75 lakh can avail the benefit of a 'composition scheme' where it will have to pay a much lower tax rate and fulfil very minimal compliance requirements. The Centre has also relaxed the norms for filing returns until September, so that the transition to GST does not hurt small traders and others not ready for the new regime. Meanwhile, retailers and car dealers were seen offering huge discounts to clear stocks, because they won't get input credits on old stocks, the air on the need to file multiple returns every year (as many as 37), Jaitley says this is a misconception. "You have to just keep yourself registered once and then before the tenth of every month you have to file your previous month's return," he says. The other two are self-generated online. On the argument of hybrid cars being under a higher tax bracket, Jaitley counters vehemently that car companies have been slow to pass on the tax benefits and have often 'pocketed' the tax advantages."It is good that GST on job works has been reduced from 18 per cent to 5 per cent in leather, textile, gems and jewellery. It gives relief to the industry as well as to its workers," says Biswanath Bhattacharjee, president, Federation of Small & Medium Industries, Kolkata. So does the lowering of GST rates on products under MSME (micro, small & medium enterprises) category such as pickles, sauces, incense sticks and kites, he evident that GST is a work in progress. While the Centre and states have shown the political will to make this happen, the onus is now on the tax administration and businesses to be equal partners in driving the transition forward and, most importantly, move towards a regime of lower tax and much simpler compliance methods. Despite its many imperfections, GST in India seems to be poised for a good start.—With Romita Datta and Jeemon JacobSubscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsMust Watch
New Indian Express
4 days ago
- New Indian Express
Andhra government marks Sardar Gouthu Latchanna's 116th birth anniversary, announces welfare measures for BCs
VIJAYAWADA: The State government, through the Backward Classes, Economically Weaker Sections, Handlooms, and Textiles Departments, celebrated the 116th birth anniversary of freedom fighter and social reformer Sardar Gouthu Latchanna at Tummalapalli Vari Kshetrayya Kalakshetram in Vijayawada on Saturday. The event underscored Latchanna's lifelong commitment to marginalised communities. BC Welfare Minister S Savitha hailed Latchanna's fight for the cause of downtrodden during and after the freedom struggle. She announced that the upcoming Adarana 3.0 scheme will provide mopeds to Goud (toddy-tapper) community members to improve their mobility and livelihoods. She emphasised the coalition government's dedication to BC welfare under Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, citing initiatives inspired by Latchanna's legacy. She urged the BC community to support Naidu's efforts, and paid floral tributes to Latchanna's statue alongside other dignitaries. She noted that Latchanna's birth anniversary is now a State festival. Savitha highlighted Latchanna's fight against untouchability, and his efforts to protect Harijan and tribal communities through organised yatras. She announced that modern equipment would be provided to Goud workers for safer palm tree climbing. Additionally, the Horticulture Research Centre in Rampachodavaram will develop new palm-based products to boost employment and economic growth of the Goud community, aligning with Naidu's vision. Agriculture Minister Kinjarapu Atchannaidu shared his family's personal connection with Latchanna, describing him as a towering figure from a poor village near Odisha border. He praised Latchanna's role in the freedom movement, and his mentorship of late parliamentarian Yerram Naidu. He credited Naidu for naming the Thotapalli project after Latchanna in 2018, and empowering BCs with key positions. He criticised the previous YSRCP regime for harassing Latchanna's family, asserting that BCs have consistently supported the TDP.
Hans India
4 days ago
- Hans India
Toddy tappers to get climbing equipment under Adarana 3.0
Vijayawada: Minister for BC, EWS welfare, handlooms, and textiles, S Savitha announced on Saturday that the state government will soon launch the Adarana 3.0 scheme to provide moped two-wheelers and advanced palm-tree climbing equipment to toddy tappers. She said that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's governance draws inspiration from the ideals of Sardar Gouthu Latchanna. The announcement was made during the 116th birth anniversary celebration of Sardar Gouthu Latchanna at Tummalapalli Kshetrayya Kalakshetram here. Ministers K Atchannaidu, Anagani Satya Prasad, Kollu Ravindra, MP Kesineni Chinni, and several MLAs attended the event. Savitha praised Latchanna's role as a freedom fighter and social reformer who fought against untouchability and championed the welfare of marginalised communities through initiatives like the 'Harijan Rakshana Yatras.' She noted that, as per the Chief Minister's directive, Latchanna's birth anniversary is now celebrated as a state festival. Under the Adarana 3.0 scheme, artisans from various professions will receive modern tools, with toddy tappers specifically benefiting from mopeds and advanced climbing equipment. Savitha also revealed plans to collaborate with the Horticulture Research Centre in Rampachodavaram to develop new palm-based products to enhance toddy tappers' livelihoods. She intends to visit the centresoon.
