Government likely to earmark Rs 1,300 crore for Post Bank of India

The government is likely to earmark Rs 1,300 crore for the India Post to enable it to make foray into the banking space.

The government is likely to earmark Rs 1,300 crore for the India Post to enable it to make foray into the banking space. 

"The expenditure finance commission will meet this month and finalise the fund to be provided to India Post for the proposed Post Bank of India," a finance ministry official told PTI. 

The Department of Post, which has applied to the Reserve Bank for a new bank licence, had last month approached the finance ministry for sanctions of Rs 1,300 crore for its banking foray and to meet the capital requirements. 

The Department of Post (DoP) plans to launch banking operations from its 50 branches in the first year and scale it to a total of 150 branches in 5 years. 

The amount would include Rs 500 crore paid-up capital required under new banking licence guidelines. 

India Post, which has over 1.54 lakh post offices across the country, would be using its existing network to provide banking services and bring in financial inclusion. 

Of the 1.54 lakh, over 1.39 lakh branches are in rural areas and 15,736 are in urban regions. 

There are around 90,000 bank branches in the country and provision of real-time banking services through postal network is estimated to triple the current banking network. 

The Post Bank of India is proposed to be owned by DoP, but with a completely independent board, governance structure and operations. It will have representation from Finance Ministry, Ministry of Communication & IT, besides independent directors on its board. 

The RBI is expected to allocate new bank licence to eligible applicants only by end of this fiscal.

Source:-The Economic Times

E-filing of I-T returns crosses one-crore mark

The e-filing of income taxreturns has crossed the one crore mark with the maximum of such filings done by the salaried class of taxpayers. 

In a latest data released by the Central Processing Centre (CPC) of the I-T department based in Bangalore, a total of 1,03,21,775 e-returns were filed by taxpayers till July 31, which is quite less than the over 2 crore e-filing numbers filed during the financial year 2012-13. 

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative authority of the Income Tax department, has recently enhanced the last date for filing of I-T returns, both manual and e-filed, to August 5 for the 2013-14 fiscal. 

A total of 57,81,252 people under the salaried class filed their e-returns till July 31 through the Internet which is also less than the over 64 lakh figure filed by salaried taxpayers during the same period last year. 

"The Income Tax department and the CBDT are aiming to encourage more and more taxpayers to file online returns. These figures are expected to rise drastically by August 5," a senior I-T officer said. 

The department's web based servers, according to the official data, received a peak rate of 2,303 returns per minute during the current filing spree even as the tax return filing season ends tomorrow. 

A special team of the department is continuously monitoring the web portals and information technology parameters of the official e-filing website of the I-T department-- https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. 

Electronic filing has been made mandatory for assessees having net taxable above Rs five lakh from this year.

Source:-The Economic Times

Clarification regarding admissible non-admissible items under CGHS

To view Department of Health and Family Welfare memo dated 1st August, 2013, please Click Here. 

Govt likely to announce 10% DA hike next month

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to announce a hike in dearness allowance to 90 per cent from existing 80 per cent in September, benefiting about 50 lakh central employees and 30 lakh pensioners ahead of the festival season. 

According to official sources, the preliminary assessment suggests that dearness allowance hike will be in the range of 10-11 per cent and would be effective from July 1 this year. 

He said the exact number could be calculated only when the revised all India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) for the month of June will be released on August 30. 

According to the provisional data released by government on July 31, the retail inflation for factory workers for the month of June stood at 11.06 per cent, higher than 10.68 per cent in May this year. 

As per the practise, the government uses CPI-IW data for past 12 month or a year to arrive at a number for the purpose of any DA hike. Thus, the retail inflation for industrial workers between July, 2012 to June 2013 would be used to take final call on the matter. 

"It would be around 10 per cent this time and would be announced in September," Confederation of central government employees secretary general K K N Kutty told PTI. 

"Besides, raising DA to 90 per cent, the government should merge 50 per cent of the allowance with the basic pay as was our demand. DA breached 50 per cent benchmark long ago", he said. 

As per the practice, the DA is merged with basic pay when it breaches the 50 per cent mark. DA merger helps employees as their other allowances are paid as a proportion of basic pay. 

Kutty said, "This DA hike won't help much as actual rise in the cost of living is 171 per cent since January 1, 2011." 

There would be a double digit hike in DA after about three years. It was last in September, 2010 that the government had announced a hike of 10 per cent to be given with effect from July 1, 2010. 

DA was hiked to 80 per cent from 72 per cent in April, 2013, effective from January 1, this year.

Source:-The Times of India

Amendment to the Right to Information Act, 2005

The Union Cabinet has approved introduction of a Bill in the coming session of the Parliament to amend the Right to Information Act, 2005, to exclude the political parties from the definition of Public authority for the purpose of the Act. 

The Central Information Commission (CIC) in its decision dated 03.06.2013, has held that the political parties, namely, AICC/INC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP, and BSP are public authorities under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. While deciding that the said political parties are public authorities, the CIC has relied mainly on the grounds that there is substantial (indirect) financing of political parties by the Central Government and they perform public duty. 

The political parties are registered with the Election Commission under the provisions of section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Under this section any small group of persons, if they so desire, can be registered as a political party by making a simple declaration under sub-section (5) of section 29A. 

With reference to the political parties, detailed provisions exist in the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which provides for dissemination of information relating to political parties, candidates and donations. The said Act, inter alia, provides for – 

• Registration with the Election Commission of associations and bodies as political parties (section 29A) 
• Political parties entitled to accept contribution (section 29B) 
• Declaration of donation received by the political parties (section 29C) 
• Declaration of assets and liabilities (section 75A) 
• Account of election expenses and maximum thereof (section 77) 
• Lodging of account with the district election officer (section 78) 
• Penalty for filing false affidavit etc. (section 125A) 

The above provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 indicate that there are sufficient provisions in the Act to deal with each and every aspect of financing, its declaration and punishment for filing false affidavit and all such information is made available to the public through the website of the Election Commission. 

Under section 13A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the political parties claiming exemption from tax are required to file their return of income before the due date before the tax authorities along with audited accounts; and form 24A prescribed under section 29C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 read with Rule 85B of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 declaring the list of persons making donations to the political parties exceeding 20,000/- rupees. 

As per section 138 of the Income-tax Act, any information with the Income-tax Department would be ordinarily held confidential, but can be made public, if in the judgment of the Commissioner of Income-tax, it serves public purpose. 

Under section 10A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, for failure to lodge the account of election expenses as per the requirement of law, the defaulting candidate may be disqualified by the Election Commission for three years from the date of the order of disqualification. 

Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, provides that each political party shall submit report to the Election Commission (before filing its income-tax return) regarding all contributions in excess of 20000/- rupees received by it in a financial year and failure to submit this report will deprive them of the tax benefit. Further, the candidates are required to file affidavit along with their nomination papers giving the annual income of the candidate and filing of false affidavit attract punishment for furnishing wrong information. 

The RTI Act was enacted to provide for an effective framework for effectuating the right of information recognised under Article 19 of the Constitution. The RTI Act was enacted to ensure greater and more effective access to information by making the Freedom of Information Act, 2002 more progressive, participatory and meaningful. 

The definition of public authority given in clause (h) of section 2 of the RTI Act is well defined to include only such authority or body constituted by or under the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament which is substantially financed directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government. The political parties do not fall within the parameters of the definition of public authority given in the RTI Act, as they are only registered and recognised under the RP Act, 1951. 

Source:-PIB

Reiteration of guidelines on RTI Act 2005

How the number of states grew to 29 over the years

On April 1, 1949, when the Jawaharlal Nehru-Vallabhbhai Patel-Pattabhi Sitaramaya (JVP) Committee report was made public it only endorsed what the earlier S K Dar Commission had said in its 56-page report in December, 1948. While arguing in favour of the reorganization of states, which was a prominent demand in south India, Dar had clearly stated that new states should not be formed on linguistic basis.

Congress still learning the ropes of power decided in its Jaipur session of 1948 to re-examine the formation of new states and set up the JVP Committee. The leading trio of the Congress while voicing its opposition to the linguistic basis displayed its classic ambivalence and said, "If public sentiment is insistent and overwhelming, we as democrats, have to submit to it subject to certain limitations in regard to the good of India as a whole." JVP Committee report also said the time is not ripe for creating more states. However, in the same voice it said a case can be made for Andhra Pradesh's Telugu-speaking people. This endorsement was good enough to fan widespread movement and violence among Telugu-speaking people of the Madras state — the highlight being the death of Potti Sriramulu after 56-day hunger strike on December 15, 1952. With situation getting out of hands, Andhra Pradesh was carved out in 1953.

Creation of AP virtually opened the floodgates of aspiration. Bowing to the nationwide pressure Nehru in December 1953 announced the formation of State Reorganisation Commission under Fazl Ali and Sardar K M Pannikkar and Hari Nath Kunzru as members. SRC was to look into the demand for separate states while factoring in history and other factors. Its report two years later in September, 1955, recommended the abolition of A, B, C, D category of states as originally enshrined in the Constitution. Instead, SRC said there should be 16 states and three Union Territories (UTs). SRC had recommended formation of Hyderabad as a separate state spread over 45,300 square miles. Bulk of its recommendations was accepted leading to the passage of State Reorganisation Act, 1956, and creation of 14 states and five UTs.

But the creation of new states was far from over. In May, 1956, the French government passed Chandernagore, Mahe, Yanam and Karaikal to India. Puducherry was turned into a UT. In 1961, Goa was liberated from the Portuguese. During all this, tension was simmering between Marathi and Gujarati-speaking people of Bombay. Thus was born Gujarat and Maharashtra in 1960. Virtual competition for new states had begun. Government capitulated to Akali leader Master Tara Singh's demand for separate homeland for Sikhs in Punjab. On lines of bifurcation of Bombay, Punjab and Haryana was created. Status of Chandigarh - if it would be the joint capital — was not settled initially, but later the two states came to terms with sharing the city designed by Le Corbusier.

North-east was facing similar sentiments. Bowing to the demand of the Nagas, Nagaland was carved out of Assam in 1963. Assam was to face another surgery in 1966 with the formation of Meghalaya. 1971 saw a spate of new states: Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura (the two were UTs earlier). Also UTs of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh were created. Sikkim was made associate state in 1974 and full state in 1975.

Through all this movement for a separate Jharkhand — consisting of tribal areas of Bihar, Bengal and Odisha — was brewing and so was a demand for separation of hill regions from UP. Tribal-dominated areas of MP also wanted a separate identity. A big votary of smaller states, BJP acceded to the demand and thus was born Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh on November 1, 2000. But Telangana demand was not met. It took another 13 years for the new state to come up. This definitely is not the last new state to be formed.

Source:-The Times of India

Review of Forms for Pensionary/retirement benefits and Nominations under various Rules of the Department of Pension & Pensioners Welfare.

To view Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare  OM No. 1/19/2013-P&PW (E) dated 1st August, 2013 please Click Here.

Children Education Allowance - Reimbursement of Examination Fee -

To view Department of Personnel & Training OM  No.12011/01/2012-EstL(AL) 31st July, 2013 please  Click Here.

Commemorative Postage Stamp on 100 years of Indian Cinema

Commemorative Postage Stamp on 100 Years of Indian Cinema will be available for sale at the Philatelic Bureaux in third week of August, 2013.