‘”BSNL is Coming Back to Profits by 2018, according to Shri Anupam Shrivasatava, CMD BSNL. BSNL is targeted to taste the profits again with new strategies. BSNL is going to be one of the most prestigious and profit making company among other PSU’s and other telecom service providers.”
This is a report in the media. We hope that the new strategies and plans of the new CMD BSNL will bear fruits. Workers are prepared to fully co-operate.
Good News! At last full MNP is going to be implemented by July 2015. Once it is implemented there is no need to dial STD ‘0’ or ’91’. By dialing the 10 digit number you will get any number in India.
The private companies have been delaying implementation of MNP stating that much funds
are required for the technical alternation for full MNP. It is hoped that they will not put more pressure on the government for further delay in implementation of full MNP.
“The Telecom Ministry has sought legal opinion on a CAG report that stated undue benefits were extended to companies including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, RCom and Tata Teleservices on a number of issues.
According to a source: “The Ministry has sought legal opinion on the matter so as to undertake further course of action.”
Taking note of CAG’s findings, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has asked the ministry officials to seek legal opinion, sources said.
Raising concerns over various policy issues in the telecom sector, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has recently flagged financial gaps to the tune of over ₹31,000 crore including towards non-imposition of fines and the undue gains to private operators.
Reliance Jio Infocomm got undue benefit of ₹3,367.29 crore after the Department of Telecom (DoT) allowed it to provide voice calling facility under the new licensing regime, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had said in its report.
Whereas Bharti Airtel made an undue gain of ₹499 crore because of DoT’s decision to merge Chennai telecom circle with Tamil Nadu in a hasty manner in 2005, the government auditor said.
Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices got undue benefit to the extent of ₹882.06 crore (2009-10 to 2013-14) after the DoT granted telecom licences for dual technology in October 2007/January 2008, the CAG said.
The companies concerned had maintained that there was no wrong doing on their part
The CAG had also said the DoT allowed operators to enter into mutual commercial agreements for intra-service area roaming in 2008 resulting in adverse financial impact on revenues.
The auditor had also highlighted undue favour to CDMA operators when the DoT decided not to auction 800 MHz spectrum for enhanced voice data optimised (EVDO) services in 2010 though they were providing 3G EVDO services with the available 2G spectrum (800 MHz) without liberalisation of spectrum.”
How the telecom department was supporting the private companies is very clear from the above report. While the government is not prepared to give any assistance to the BSNL, thousands of crores of rupees are allowed to be pocketed by private companies on various counts.
President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to the Finance Bill, 2015. It means various provisions such as the new taxation norms and merger of the Forward Market Commission with the Securities and Exchange Board of India, besides others, will now be part of an Act and will be implemented accordingly.
Service Tax
However, assent by the President with effect from May 14 does not mean that one can start levying service tax at the rate of 14 per cent immediately. The Finance Ministry will notify the date for implementation of the new rate. New date could be July 1 and till the new date is notified, service tax will continue to be levied at the rate of 12.36 per cent (inclusive of education cess).
Service tax is levied on all services, except those on the negative list. Over half of the services that attract service tax also have abatement which means tax will be levied only on a portion of the total value. For example, air-conditioned restaurants charge service tax on 40 per cent of the bill amount, which is 4.944 per cent. This will change to 5.6 per cent from the date notified for higher service tax rate.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech announced hiking of the rate of service tax to 14 per cent from 12 per cent plus education cesses. It was also said the ‘Education Cess’ and ‘Secondary and Higher Education Cess,’ will be subsumed in the revised rate of service tax. It means there will not be any cess over and above 14 per cent. But there is no change in the abatement rules. This means the percentage of value to be taxed will remain the same, but the effective rate of tax will go up.
Income Tax Benefit
With the enactment of the Finance Bill, various tax benefit provisions such as a) increase in the limit of deduction in respect of health insurance premium to Rs. 25,000 from Rs. 15,000 (for senior citizens the limit will stand increased to Rs. 30,000 from the existing Rs. 20,000); b) additional deduction of Rs. 25,000 for the differently-abled; and c) Rs. 50,000 investment in the New Pension Scheme (over and above the Rs.1.50-lakh deduction available under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act), beside others, will have legal backing. All these will be deemed to have come into force on the 1st day of April, 2015.
Merger of FMC with SEBI
The enactment also formalises the way forward for the merger of the commodity market regulator, FMC, with the capital market regulator, SEBI. Now, the Government will notify various dates for implementation of various processes of the merger. It is expected that the entire merger process will be completed in 6-12 months
Under the new mechanism, a commodity derivative broker will get three months’ time to get a registration from the SEBI. Currently, they are not required to register with FMC. SEBI also intends to put in place a stricter regulatory regime for commodity derivative participants. The current system of separate registration by a financial intermediary for commodity trading will continue for at least the “next few years.”
Post-merger, all the recognised associations (read commodity exchanges) providing trading facility in derivatives trading will be deemed to be recognised stock exchanges under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. These exchanges will be given enough time to become eligible to start trading in equity or currency derivatives. However, being eligible does not mean one can lay claim to providing any new trading platform. It will be a discretionary power of SEBI to give approval for starting anything new. However, post-merger, SEBI will not regulate spot trading as well as the warehousing corporation.
The World Federation of trade Unions -WFTU- is following closely the recent developments in Nepal after the catastrophic earthquakes that left thousands dead and its impact for the working class and the people of the country. The WFTU affiliates in the country have also paid a heavy toll by losing members and trade unionists out of this disaster.
We extend our deepest sympathy to the families affected by this tragedy. WFTU has supported morally and materially the Nepali people and union movement after this disaster. The WFTU feels the need to keep solidarizing with the Nepali people in this time of need and calls to support the local union movement and its efforts to rebuild the country and help it recover from this disaster. We support the demands of the Nepali trade unions, of WFTU affiliates in the country, that the Government of Nepal and all concerned agencies, national and international organizations provide assistance in rescue and relief initiatives. We urge the Government of Nepal to ensure the fundamental human needs, while managing post disasters activities. We request that the government takes actions of reconstruction and rehabilitation in a sustainable and permanent way, according to the modern needs of the workers and the people in the country.
The eleven central trade unions had decided to hold a National Convention of workers on May,26, 2015 to decide on future course of action on its 10 point charter of demands. Of course these demands are nothing new, but being pursued from the UPA government egime. Now, the situation has further aggravated with aggressive attempts of the Narendra Modi government to change the existing labour laws to suit the interests of the employers while the central trade unions are demanding strict enforcement of the labour laws.
Of late the government is busy for amendments of Indian Trade Union Act, 1926 and the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 to benefit the corporates and deny the workers their legitimate trade union rights. It was in this background that the BJP government invited the central trade unions for a negotiation on 16th May, 2015. The government side was represented by a ministerial team comprising the Power Minister, Piyush Goyal, Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatraya and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. But the talk failed to reach agreement on any of the ten demands as the ministerial team was not even able to open the government’s mind as it was not formally designated. The talk was further complicated by the Centre’s move to restrict trade unionism, lower wage standard and make it easier for companies to lay off workers.
The President of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) Baidya Nath Rai has said after the discussion that ” It is an irony that on the day the government will be celebrating, all workers of the country will be reminding it that nothing has been done in the last one year.” Mr. Rai added that by asking certain ministers to negotiate with the unions without formally designating a team, the Modi government was being dismissive of them. One of the key demands in the charter of demand is proper implementation of labour laws. Now, they have gone a step in the opposite direction and are dismantling existing laws.”
While the BSNL Management and workers are unitedly trying to strengthen BSNL and also to provide more connections, the statistics as on 31-03-2015 by the TRAI give a non-positive picture. BSNL has gone down on the number of connections and market share. While other operators have increased their connections and market share, the actual connections of BSNL, both in landlines and wireless have gone down. The total market share has down below 10% and in wireless it is around 8% only and in the sixth position.
It is a real warning bell. The government, BSNL Management and employees have to jointly work with maximum effort and turn the trend and bring back BSNL to better position.
The statistics as on 31-03-2015 for BSNL is given below:
Total Wireless Connections: 970 million BSNL : 77 millions Market Share 8%
Total connections (Landline and Wireless) : 996.1 million BSNL : 93.24 million Market Share : 9.4%
Broad band connections : 15.54 Millions BSNL: 9.8 millions Market Share : 65%
Exporters’ body seeks cheap credit, calls for implementation of interest subsidy scheme
Goods exports declined for the fifth straight month in April, falling 13.96 per cent to $22.05 billion as demand from key markets remained subdued.
The dip in merchandise exports, which account for about 16 per cent of India’s roughly $2-trillion economy, is likely to tell on the economic growth.
Painting a grim picture, exporters’ body FIEO said that the booking position of exporters has worsened compared to December 2014, when exports had first started falling.
This also raises questions on the feasibility of the Narendra Modi Government’s target of achieving over 8 per cent growth in 2015-16.
Imports during the month fell 7.48 per cent to $33.04 billion due to a sharp fall in the oil bill. But the trade gap widened to $10.99 billion from $10.1 billion in the previous fiscal year. “The interest subvention (subsidy) scheme should be reintroduced immediately and the liquidity crunch facing exporters addressed with timely release of export benefits,” FIEO President SC Ralhan said, stressing the need for cheaper credit to stay competitive in the global market.
While the Centre announced the reintroduction of the interest subsidy scheme in the Foreign Trade Policy last month for three years, it has not yet been implemented as the sectors to be covered are yet to be finalised.
Petroleum products, gems and jewellery, electronics, plastic goods, meat, marine products, coal and minerals and oil-meal were some of the export items that took a hit in April.
While country-specific export data are not yet available, a Commerce Ministry official said shipments to the EU, Japan, the Asean region and China were likely to be low. Exports to these markets fared badly in 2014-15.
Goods exports in 2014-15 were down 1.23 per cent from the previous year, at $310.5 billion. Oil imports in April, at $7.44 billion, were 42.65 per cent lower than last April. Non-oil imports were up 12.58 per cent at $25.6 billion.
Gold imports rose 78.33 per cent to $3.1 billion, while that of silver fell 31 per cent to $0.32 billion.
Import of project goods remained flat in April, while that of machine tools fell.
There has already been undue delay in settling the 78.2% IDA pension fixation. DOT as well as Minister Communications has assured that the matter will be speeded up. But so far, even the Cabinet note has not been prepared.
We demand that the DOT and Government should immediately act. The Pensioners are eagerly waiting for getting the benefit of 78.2% Pension fixation implemented.
There should not be any further delay. The DOT should act.
The BJP while in opposition was opposing vociferously the UPA government’s attempt to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail trading stating that it will doom the lives of lakhs of small retail traders in the country. Yes, it is the reality.
But now the BJP government has changed their earlier stand and says that it will follow the earlier UPA governments policy . What is the reason for this shift? It could be nothing else but the pressure of the foreign multi-nationals and their sponsors, the imperialist countries. This will happen in our country as the priority of the ruling class is always the corporates and not the common people of this country.