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ATTENTION ALL CIRCLE SECRETARIES, CHQ OFFICE BEARERS AND DISTRICT SECRETARIES.

CONDUCT THE POSTCARD CAMPAIGN WITH MAXIMUM MOBILIZATION OF PENSIONERS.

The decision of the Central Executive Committee meeting held at Jamnagar on 28-29, April,2015 for a two phased agitation on the twin demands of 78.2% IDA merger and restoration of quarterly medical allowance has already been communicated to all the concerned comrades through the CHQ circular which was published in this website also.

The first phase being the postcard campaign, we have to mobilize maximum pensioners and get the postcard written and signed by them and post by latest 25th May, 2015.

The matter is again reproduced below for ready reference.

To

Shri. Narendra Modi,

Hon’ble Prime Minister, Govt. of India,

South Block, Raisina Hill,

New Delhi-110001.

Respected Sir,

I request your kind and early intervention for the settlement of the following long pending burning issues of BSNL pensioners.

1. The benefit of 78.2% IDA merger granted to BSNL employees and those retired after 10-06-2013 be extended to BSNL pensioners retired before 10-06-2013.

2. The quarterly medical allowance stopped unilaterally be restored to the BSNL pensioners.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

Signature

Name and address.

NEPAL RELIEF FUND.

The details of collection of the Nepal Relief Fund and remittance to Prime Minister’s National Relief fund be intimated to CHQ at the earliest.

BARDHMAN AND KOLKATA DISTRICT CONFERENCES HELD SUCCESSFULLY

Bardhaman District Conference

The conference was held on 26th April 2015 at Bardhaman Recreation Club room. After flag hoisting and garlanding martyrs column Com. Pankaj Saha ACS AIBDPA WB inaugurated the conference. Com Md Younus presided. Other speakers were SP Roy, Soumen Roy, NN Chatterjee (BSNLEU), BR Ghosh (CORTO) etc. Members enmasse participated in the conference. District Secretary Subhas Shee placed the report and the Treasurer placed the audited account. Members discussed on report, accounts and organization after which the report and accounts were adopted.

The conference elected Coms.Md. Younus, Shyamapada Roy and Md. Ismail as President, District Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

Kolkata District Conference

 

The 2nd biennial conference was held on 16.5.15 at CTO Union room. Com. Susanta Ghosh CS inaugurated the conference after flag hoisted by the president and garlanding the martyrs columm by the office bearers, invitees and the delegates. In the inaugural session other speakers were Coms Animesh Mitra CS BSNLEU WB, Akhilesh Banerjee ACS BSNLCMU and Biplab Das GS BSNLCC.  Com Hirak Sengupta presided over the conference. Report and accounts were placed by Com. PK Nandi, DS and Dibakar Dey Tsr respectively and were passed after the discussion of the delegates. Com Pijush Chakraborty ACS summed up on behalf of the Circle Branch. 5 nos of resolutions on 1) 78.2% IDA merger 2) save BSNL Save Nation 3) Communal Harmony 4) restore democracy in West Bengal and 5) Formation of Local Branch were adopted.

The conference unanimously elected Coms Hirak Sengupta, Ajit Nandan and Dibakar Dey as the President, District Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

 
 
 
 

ONE RANK ONE PENSION AWAITS CLEARANCE BY THE PRIME MINISTER.

 

The Centre has in principle cleared the ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme for retired armed forces personnel, sources have told NDTV. The government has made a provision for an additional Rs. 8,300 crore for this purpose.

The scheme, which seeks to ensure that a uniform pension is paid to defence personnel who retire at the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, has been a long-standing demand of the over 20 lakh ex-servicemen in the country. Majority of Defence personnel hang up their boots much before 60 years. Also, over the years the disparity in the pension drawn by personnel of same rank who retired for instance a decade ago and those who retire now is substantial.

Demand for One Rank One Pension has been an emotive issue with defence pensioners for long. And, between 2008- 2010 veterans have on several occasions marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan to return their gallantry medals.

Sources say once Prime Minister Narendra Modi is back on May 19 from his three-nation tour, a final round of discussions will take place with him. The official announcement is likely to be made later this month, coinciding with the first anniversary celebrations of the NDA government.

The government has already made it clear that One Rank One Pension will be implemented with effect from 1st April, 2014.

BSNL WILL POST PROFIT BY 2018- SAYS CMD, BSNL

 

 

‘”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.

 

 

YOU CAN DIAL DISTANT NUMBERS WITHOUT “0” OR “91” – FULL MNP BY JULY, 2015.

 

 

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.

PRIVATE TELECOM COMPANIES WERE ALLOWED TO REAP UNDUE BENEFITS BY DOT.

 

 

Reproducing below a report from “Business Line” on the CAG report on Telecom.   

“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 GIVES ASSENT TO THE FINANCE BILL, 2015- NOTIFICATION TO BE ISSUED FOR 14% SERVICE TAX.

WE ARE REPRODUCING A NEWS ITEM PUBLISHED IN THE HINDU BUSINESS LINE.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NEW DELHI, MAY 16:  

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.

 

 

(This article was published on May 16, 2015)

WFTU CALLS FOR SOLIDARITY TO NEPAL EARTH QUAKE VICTIMS.

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.

 
 

BMS FLAYS MODI GOVERNMENT FOR ANTI-WORKER LABOUR REFORMS.

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.”