Cliff Impact,Five per cent cut in the Rs 1.93 lakh crore defence budget!
Government has imposed around five per cent cut in the Rs 1.93 lakh crore defence budget this year in view of economic slowdown.
In globalisation, it is free for all carnival!Rangarajan Committee recommends average global prices for domestic gas!US fiscal deal doesn't solve the massive deficit problem!
Scam inflicted government has succeeded t o divert the national attention thanks to reform generation uprising against rape culture.Chidambaram has proved his ability to push reform drive to next generation. But the scams threaten to resurface once again as senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has termed Haryana's decision to set up a panel to probe his orders to cancel mutation of a land deal between Robert Vadra and real estate corporate DLF as a "cover up to the gargantuan land scams", and sought relevant file notings from the state government.Four days after the high-level panel submitted its inquiry report into the cancellation of mutation of 3.5 acre of land in Gurgaon, Khemka stood his ground on his findings in the controversial deal.
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time, Chapter: Nine Hundred Forty Four
Palash Biswas
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Scam inflicted government has succeeded t o divert the national attention thanks to rform generation uprising against rape culture.Chidambaram has proved his ability to push reform drive to next generation. But the scams threaten to resurface once again as senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has termed Haryana's decision to set up a panel to probe his orders to cancel mutation of a land deal between Robert Vadra and real estate corporate DLF as a "cover up to the gargantuan land scams", and sought relevant file notings from the state government.Four days after the high-level panel submitted its inquiry report into the cancellation of mutation of 3.5 acre of land in Gurgaon, Khemka stood his ground on his findings in the controversial deal.Meanwhile, the hindutva face of next prime minister faces yet another setback as Narendra Modi loses Lokayukta battle, SC upholds Governor Kamla Beniwal's choice Justice R A Mehta.The consumer culture is showcased with skin exposure as Trinamool member Mir Tahir Ali showers money on skimpily-dressed dancing girls!In globalisation, it is free for all carnival!
Rangarajan Committee recommends average global prices for domestic gas!
Government has imposed around five per cent cut in the Rs 1.93 lakh crore defence budget this year in view of economic slowdown.
The Ministry of Finance recently conveyed to the Defence Ministry that there would be a cut of around Rs 10,000 crore in the Rs 1.93 lakh crore allocated for the defence sector, Ministry officials said here.
After the cut in budget, several key acquisition plans of the three forces including the procurement of 126 combat aircraft for the IAF are expected to be pushed for the next fiscal, they said.
Defence Minister A K Antony had given indications in this regard recently when he said that the Ministry would be struggling to get even the allocated amount.
"I am struggling to get the budgetary amount," he had said when asked if he was hopeful of getting the additional Rs 40,000 crore sought by his ministry for modernisation of the three services.
In view of the cost-cutting measures, defence forces have been asked by the ministry to concentrate on prioritising their procurements.
Under the Rs 1.93 lakh crore budget, Rs 1,13,829 crore is for revenue expenditure including salaries and pensions and Rs 79,579 crore was allocated for modernising the armed forces by acquiring new assets.
A last-minute deal in Congress to avoid the economy-shaking ``fiscal cliff'' sent world stocks climbing on Wednesday but doesn't solve the problem of the massive US deficit, meaning other battles on deep spending cuts and the federal debt limit loom in the coming weeks and months.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged 200 points as US markets opened.
A smiling President Barack Obama said he would sign the law ``that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while preventing tax hikes that could have sent the economy back into recession.'' Then he left for Hawaii to resume his holiday break.
The deal that squeezed through a sharply divided Congress just hours before most financial markets reopened from the New Year's holiday keeps income taxes from rising on the middle class and the poor, but it puts off major decisions on more than $100 billion in defense and domestic spending cuts.
Congress also will have to act as early as February on raising the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing limit, which will allow the country to pay its bills. ``If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic, far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff,'' Obama said.
That means more potential drama ahead for those who have marveled at the inability of US leaders to address chronic deficit spending, especially Europeans, who have faced plenty of debt problems of their own. Obama warned that he will ``not have another debate with this Congress'' on the debt ceiling. Of course, the makeup of Congress changes on Thursday, when dozens of new members are seated.
If the fiscal deal had not been reached by then, the new Congress would have had to start over, and Americans would have faced automatic spending cuts and tax increases of more than $500 billion in 2013 alone. The fiscal cliff, with its Jan. 1 deadline, was put in place in 2011 as motivation for the Obama administration and Congress to find ways to reduce the deficit, which now averages about $1 trillion a year.
Economists had warned that the sudden combination of taxes and spending could have swung the country back into recession. Some have said even this limited fiscal deal with hurt economic growth this year.
The deal to avert that scenario, and put in place the first significant tax increase in two decades, passed a final hurdle when the House of Representatives passed it late Tuesday, despite loud protests from conservative Republicans who hate the idea of raising taxes at all. They wanted to see more spending cuts in the agreement. ``I'm embarrassed for this generation. Future generations deserve better,'' said one Republican opponent, Rep. Louie Gohmert.
The deal put off the issue of spending cuts, stopping $24 billion in spending cuts set to take effect over the next two months.
Moments after the vote, Obama strode into the White House briefing room and claimed a victory, though it was Vice President Joe Biden, a decades-long veteran of the Senate, who was called to the negotiating table to work with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to get the deal through the Senate in the early hours of the new year.
Past its own New Year’s deadline, a weary Congress sent President Obama legislation to avoid a national “fiscal cliff” of middle-class tax increases and spending cuts late Tuesday night.
The bill’s passage on a 257-167 vote in the House sealed a hard-won political triumph for the president less than two months after he secured re-election while calling for higher taxes on the wealthy.
Moments after the vote, Obama strode into the White House briefing room and declared, “Thanks to the votes of Republicans and Democrats in Congress I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while presenting tax hikes that could have sent the economy back into recession.”
He spoke with Vice President Joe Biden at his side, a recognition of the former senator’s role as the lead Democratic negotiator in final compromise talks with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Obama said that the ‘fiscal cliff’ deal follows the principle that the nation’s deficit needs to be cut in a balanced way.
In addition to neutralizing middle-class tax increases and spending cuts taking effect with the new year, the legislation will raise tax rates on incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples. That was higher than the thresholds of $200,000 and $250,000 that Obama campaigned for.
But remarkably, in a party that swore off tax increases two decades ago, dozens of Republicans supported the bill at both ends of the Capitol.
The Senate approved the measure on a vote of 89-8 less than 24 hours earlier, and in the interim, rebellious House conservatives demanded a vote to add significant spending cuts to the measure. But in the end they retreated.
Supporters of the bill in both parties expressed regret that it was narrowly drawn, and fell far short of a sweeping plan that combined tax changes and spending cuts to reduce federal deficits. That proved to be a step too far in the two months since Obama called congressional leaders to the White House for a post-election stab at compromise.
APThe lights of the U.S. Capitol remain lit into the night as the House continues to work on the "fiscal cliff" legislation proposed by the Senate, in Washington on Tuesday.
Ending a climactic fiscal showdown in the final hours of the 112th Congress, the House late on Tuesday passed and sent to President Barack Obama legislation to avert big income tax increases on most Americans and prevent large cuts in spending for the Pentagon and other government programs.
The measure, brought to the House floor less than 24 hours after its passage in the Senate, was approved 257-167, with 85 Republicans joining 172 Democrats in voting to allow income taxes to rise for the first time in two decades, in this case for the highest-earning Americans. “The one thing that I think, hopefully, the new year will focus on,” Mr. Obama said, “is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinkmanship, and not scare the heck out of folks quite as much.’’
The decision by Republican leaders to allow the vote came despite widespread scorn among House Republicans for the bill, passed overwhelmingly by the Senate in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
They were unhappy that it did not include significant spending cuts in health and other social programs, which they say are essential to any long-term solution to the nation's debt.
Democrats, while hardly placated by the compromise, celebrated Mr. Obama’s nominal victory,
Many Republicans in their remarks characterized the measure, which allows taxes to go up on household income over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples but makes permanent tax cuts for income below that level, as a victory of sorts.
Republicans hope to fight for more spending cuts in the upcoming debt-ceiling vote.
In a letter to Haryana Chief Secretary P K Chaudhery on Monday, Khemka, who had as Director General of Consolidation of Holdings, cancelled the mutation of land deal between businessman Robert Vadra and real estate giant DLF, wrote that his orders under Sec 42 of East-Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948, were "quasi- judicial and final."
Currently, MD of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation, Khemka has also sought a copy of the government order constituting the inquiry committee, its terms of reference and relevant file noting pages constituting the panel.
On being contacted, Khemka said the committee is a "sham to justify possible action against me as a cover to the gargantuan land scams".
"All this kind of humiliation and mental torture is to break me down psychologically," he claimed, adding that "vested interests" in the government have "pre-judged" the matter.
He said he is surprised that the affected individual or the corporate house is "not ostensibly aggrieved."
In his letter Khemka said, "the remedy for the affected party is to challenge the order by way of filing a writ petition in the high court".
Khemka has cited a case in which the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on September 6 last year directed the Hooda government to compile all orders of the DG consolidation, where precious panchayat lands were transferred to influential realtor companies.
"One of my orders pertaining to Chirsi village (Faridabad district) is also under challenge," he wrote.
The probe panel had submitted its report to the state Chief Secretary on December 28.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Vadra had sold 3.53 acre of land at Shikohpur village in Gurgaon district to DLF.
As DG Consolidation, Khemka had on October 15, last year set aside the mutation on the grounds that the assistant consolidation officer who had sanctioned it was not authorised to do so.
Chaudhery, meanwhile, said he was "examining" the probe panel's report.
In a setback to Narendra Modi, the Supreme Court today upheld the appointment of Justice (retd) R A Mehta as state Lokayukta by Governor Kamla Beniwal, saying it was done in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court.A bench of justices B S Chauhan and F M Ibrahim Kalifulla dismissed the Gujarat government's plea that the appointment was illegal as it was done without consulting it.
Watch video: SC setback for Narendra Modi
The bench said that the Governor is bound to act under the advice of the Council of Ministers, but the appointment of Justice Mehta is right as it was done in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.
The apex court said that Justice Mehta can go ahead with his work as Lokayukta.
The Governor had on August 25, 2011 appointed Justice Mehta to the post of Lokayukta, which had been lying vacant for the last eight years.
The Gujarat government had moved the apex court against the January 18, 2012 order of the Gujarat High Court upholding the Governor's decision.
The High Court's verdict had been delivered by Justice V M Sahai after a division bench gave a split decision on the legitimacy of the Governor's action in appointing Justice Mehta, a retired judge of the Gujarat High Court, as Lokayukta.
The division bench of the High Court had given the split verdict on the appointment issue on October 11, 2011.
While Justice Akil Kureshi had upheld the decision of the Governor, Justice Sonia Gokani had quashed the warrant of appointment terming it to be unconstitutional.
Challenging the High Court's order in the Supreme Court, the state government had contended that the personal discretion exercised by the Governor in unilaterally issuing the warrant of appointment of Lokayukta was "unwarranted".
Bhangar (West Bengal) A controversy has broken out after skimpily-dressed dancing girls performed at a Trinamool Congress foundation day function at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district with TMC leader Mir Tahir Ali allegedly showering money on them.
Police stopped the function after midnight last night.
Organised at a stone's throw from the Bhangar police station, the function saw TMC leader and 24-Parganas Zilla Parishad member Mir Tahir Ali climb onto the stage and allegedly threw wads of currency notes at the direction of the dancing girls.
The Trinamool Congress termed it as an 'isolated' incident and said strict action will be taken against any party worker involved.
TMC MP Derek O' Brien said, "Thousands of events marked Trinamool's 16th birthday yesterday and one of these events from these 300 events was an abhorrent incident involving ladies dancing, it was an isolated incident, the strictest action will be taken against any party worker involved".
"Please do not portray this as something endorsed by Trinamool. For Trinamool, cultural sensibilities and gender sensibilities are absolutely paramount. Please be reassured it is not endorsed by anyone from Trinamool Congress....we will find out who were the people indulging in the crass display of gender insensitivity," he said.
The incident, which went viral on TV channels, was condemned by various sections of society, including political parties and the women's commission. They expressed their displeasure at the 'vulgar' political culture.
National Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma said, "It is shameful that they are celebrating this way. We need a change of mindset among all political parties".
Eminent educationist Sunanda Sanyal said, "The future of young boys and girls will get destroyed if this political culture remains prevalent in West Bengal".
TMC suspends leaders, activists involved in foundation day erotic dance
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday condemned and suspended the leaders and activists who were caught on camera heckling and throwing money at hired women dancers at one of its founding day celebrations.
TMC leader and spokesman Derek O'Brien said that a disciplinary committee may even consider sacking the persons involved from the party.
"One of the celebration events obviously went wrong. We condemn what happened. We need to find out who these people are, whether TMC workers or others. What happened last night was condemnable," O'Brien said.
"The TMC does not approve such events. We will get to the bottom of this. We will take appropriate action. There is absolutely zero tolerance on such matters. We have sent a team on the ground to find out," he added.
He also said there was no need for West Bengal Chief Minister and party president Mamata Banerjee to offer an apology for some of its party workers taking part in function in which women dancers were hired to perform an alleged erotic dance.
District-level TMC leaders and activists were caught on television throwing money on the hired women dancers during the function on Tuesday, leaving the party leadership embarassed.
The function was organised by Trinamool Congress district level leaders in Bhangore, near Kolkata. Trinamool zila parishad member Meer Taheer Ali is widely believed to have arranged the women dancers for the celebrations that took place right opposite the local police station.
O'Brien said there was no need for the media to play the dual role of both judge and executioner in the matter. A television channel described O'Brien's reaction as .
O'Brien reiterated that a statement on the incident has been issued in which it was also stated that the party had organized several commemorative programmes across the state to mark Trinamool Congress’ 15th foundation day.
The recording of the programme was also aired on local television channels.
The controversy comes at a time when the entire nation witnessed muted New year celebrations as a mark of respect for the 23-year-old Delhi student who died 13 days after she was brutally gang-raped and tortured by six men in a moving bus.
The controversy is likely to embarrass Banerjee,particularly at a time when security of women is high on the government’s agenda and clamour for stringent laws to deal with crimes against women is growing louder.
Defence Ministry staff, DRI constable among 5 arrested for molestation
New Delhi Five persons, including a Defence Ministry staff and a constable of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, were arrested for allegedly molesting a woman and trying to forcibly take her in their car on Sunday, police said today.
All the five persons involved in the case were arrested after a complaint filed by Roshni Devi, who alleged that her daughter-in-law was molested by the group at her hut in Bawana in northwest Delhi.
The five persons have been identified as Mahender (26), Sunil Dahiya (25), Rajneesh (28), Gopal (28) and Basant (31).
While Gopal is a multi-task staff in the Defence Ministry, Basant is a head constable in DRI.
Devi alleged that on Sunday the five men came in a car and entered into their hut when she along with her daughter-in-law was busy cooking dinner.
"They molested Reena and tried to abduct her at which Roshni Devi resisted and shouted. People gathered and overpowered them. All the five men have been arrested," a senior police official said, quoting the complainant.
SC to hear PIL seeking suspension of MPs and MLAs chargesheeted for crime against women
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a PIL filed by a former woman IAS officer seeking directions to the government to ensure safety of women and for conduct of fast-track court proceedings in all rape cases.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir will hear tomorrow the PIL which also sought suspension of MPs and MLAs in case a charge sheet is filed against them for crime against women.
In her PIL, retired IAS officer Promilla Shanker has pleaded with the court to direct the government to set up fast-track courts in all states for expeditious trial of rape
cases.
She also submitted that cases of rape and crime against women and children be investigated by lady police officials and trial be conducted by lady judges.
Meanwhile, another bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi issued notices to the Centre and all the states and sought their response on another PIL by advocate Mukesh Kumar seeking safety measures for women.
Kumar, in his PIL, demanded creation of women police stations in every town to investigate complaints of rape and sexual assault against women.
It also sought steps for implementation of UN convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
The court asked the Centre and the states to file their responses in four weeks.
The PILs come in the backdrop of the nation-wide outrage over December 16 brutal gangrape and assault of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi, who died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
The Prime Minister-appointed Rangarajan Committee has suggested mandating a price of domestically produced natural gas at an average of international hub prices and cost of imported LNG instead of present mechanism of market discovery.The panel in its report made public today suggested first taking an average of the US, Europe and Japanese hub or market price and then averaging it out with the netback price of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) to give sale price of domestically produced gas.
Industry sources, however, raised doubts saying acceptance of the recommendations would lead to overriding of the signed contracts. Currently, Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) provide for gas being sold at an arms-length price discovered through market bids invited from potential users.
Acceptance of the recommendation would mean government mandating a price of gas and ending the last of the remaining freedoms available, they said.
The government has already taken over the task of fixing users curbing marketing freedom guaranteed in PSC.
Sources also questioned how a market price in the US or Europe which is a function demand and supply in that region, could be applied to a hugely fuel deficit nation like India.
The US has low gas prices because of abundant fuel with the advant of shale gas while demand in Europe and Japan, unlike India, has fallen.
The panel headed by C Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said the PSC provides for arm's length pricing and prior Government approval of the formula or basis for gas pricing, subject to policy on natural gas pricing.
"Since no market-determined arm's length price currently obtains domestically and nor is this likely to happen for several more years, a policy on pricing of natural gas has been proposed," it said.
The Committee recommended deriving one price from "the volume-weighted net-back price to producers at (LNG) exporting country well-head for Indian imports for the trailing 12 months."
Simultaneously, the volume-weighted price of US's Henry Hub, UK's NBP and Japan Custom Cleared prices for the trailing 12 months be calculated.
"The arm's length price thus computed as the average of the two price estimates would apply equally to all sectors, regardless of their prioritisation for supply under the Gas Utilisation Policy," it said.
Industry sources said no LNG exporting country ever declares its netback or producer price and it would be extremely difficult to determine that.
"The proposed policy would provide for estimation of an unbiased arm's length price based on an average of two prices, which can be interpreted as alternative estimates of an arm's length price for the Indian producer," the Rangarajan panel said.
The suggested formula will apply to pricing decisions made in future, and can be reviewed after five years when the possibility of pricing based on direct gas-on-gas competition may be assessed, it added.
On the future exploration contracts, it said the existing PSC allows the contractor to recover his cost, before giving the government its share in the contractor's revenues, in case there is commercial discovery leading to production.
"Under this system, a close scrutiny of costs becomes critical for the Government since there is incentive for contractors to book as costs expenses that do not reflect the true economic cost to the contractor (eg through transfer pricing)," it said. "This is perceived by contractors as interference in commercial decision-making, whereas the government and CAG view it as legitimate and necessary."
Stating that cost recovery is at the root of the problems experienced, it proposed to dispense with it, in favour of sharing of the overall revenues of the contractor, without setting off any costs.
"The share will be determined through a competitive bid process for future PSCs," the report said. "The bids will be made in a bid matrix, in which the bidder will offer different percentage revenue shares for different levels of production and price levels."
This will ensure that as the contractor earns more, government gets progressively higher revenue, and will also safeguard government interest in case of a windfall arising from a price surge or a surprise geological find.
The committee has also recommended that an extended tax holiday of 10 years, as against 7 years already available for all blocks, be granted for blocks having a substantial portion involving drilling offshore at a depth of more than 1,500 metres, since cost of a single well can be as high as USD 150 million.
Further, the committee has recommended extending the timeframe for exploration in future PSCs for frontier, deep-water (offshore, at more than 400 m depth) and ultra-deep-water (offshore, at more than 1,500 m depth) blocks from eight years currently, to ten years.
Diesel deregulation: Need to look into dimensions of issue says FM
Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said that government will have to look into various dimensions of the issue before taking any decision on deregulating diesel prices.
"The government has to take into account several dimensions of issue before decision can be taken," he said, when asked about the possibility of deregulating diesel prices.
The issues concerning diesel are not unidimensional, the Minister said, adding while some argue for deregulation, the others say that it would fuel inflation.
"On one column (of a newspaper) you will say, deregulate diesel price and on another column you will say inflation (will rise). These are not unidimensional issues, you cannot approach a issue from one dimension," he said.
Overall inflation in November stood at 7.24 per cent, much above the Reserve Bank's comfort level of 5-6 per cent.
The government had in 2010 taken an "in-principle" decision to deregulate diesel prices, but could not implement it because of political pressure. The decision was based on the recommendations made by Kirit Parikh committee.
Price of diesel, which currently costs Rs 47.15 per litre in Delhi, was last revised on September 14 when it was hiked by a steep Rs 5.63 per litre.
The government has promised a cash support of Rs 30,000 crore to the oil marketing companies to cover a part of the Rs 85,586 crore revenue loss on fuel sales during April- September.
CJI promises swift justice for crimes against women
Inaugurating a fast track court that will try the accused in the case of gangrape-cum-murder of a Delhi girl, Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir today cautioned against lynch-mob mentality and promised swift justice in cases of sexual offences against women.
“It is good to know that after this rather tragic incident of 16 December, people have started raising their voices against certain crimes against society, against crime against women. But the immediate reaction of people has been that don’t put these persons to trial, hand them over to us, we will deal with them, hang them.
AFP
“Now these kinds of sentiments, which are emotional, are rather dangerous sentiments. But these emotions will continue until the matter comes to us and we deal with them expeditiously,” Justice Altamas Kabir said inaugurating the first of the five fast track courts that will hear cases of sexual offences against women.
The FTC, inaugurated by the CJI in Saket court complex in South Delhi in the presence of Delhi High Court Chief Justice D Murugesan, will conduct the trial of the accused in the gangrape of a Delhi girl who also suffered a brutal assault that led to her death in a Singapore hospital last week.
Justice Kabir said, “Let us not lose sight of the fact that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Let us balance things. Let us not get carried away. Provide justice in a fair but swift manner so that faith of people is once again restored that the judiciary is there behind the common man. These kinds of crimes, which have been on an upswing, will be taken care of.”
Stressing that December 16 incident of gangrape of the 23-year-old student was not an isolated incident and such crimes are happening everywhere, Justice Kabir said to address such crimes one has to understand what a woman goes through in such cases.
Addressing the judicial officers, he said, “Such crimes are not against the body of a woman but her soul.”
“The incident of December 16 is not an isolated incident. such matters are happening everyday. Even on that day itself, while the headline showed this particular case, on the third or fourth page of a newspaper, there was a little article of about six lines or eight lines that a ten-year old Delhi girl was gangraped and then set on fire,” he said stressing upon the need for fast-tracking all such cases of sexual offences.
“That did not capture the attention of people. This case did. Why is it that certain cases catch the attention? These are all equally reprehensible. Imagine a six-month-old baby being raped. It’s a small item in the newspaper and then it is taken away,” he said.
Promising swift justice, the CJI said, “I on my part will try my level best that the part of the case on administration side is taken care of and the things are done expeditiously in a fashion where the things can be brought to the court as expeditiously as possible.”
He also said “one has to understand the trauma a woman goes through, and this has been repeatedly said in our judgements, when she is forced against her will.
“It is not a crime against body but the soul itself. If the soul of the woman has to be saved one has to understand the psychology,” he said.
Justice Kabir also said, “The Fast Track Court, particularly for trying offences against women, is not only necessary but also welcome and the government has also woken up to this and has immediately agreed that there should be Fast Track court to try these kind of cases on a priority basis.”
While reiterating that all crimes are condemnable, the CJI said “crimes particularly against women, children, disabled persons need our immediate attention so that the perpetrators of these kind of crimes are brought to justice as quickly as possible, as swiftly as possible so that the message is sent to all and sundry that these matters are going to be dealt with seriously.”
The CJI also pointed that such incidents also happen because people do not follow or do what is needed to be done.
“Take a simple case, this particular incident happened in a moving bus which roamed for three hours in Delhi while this was being done inside. Nobody knew what was happening inside. This particular bus had tinted windows and curtains.
“If the directives which had been given by the Supreme Court to remove tinted glass or the film or curtains from the windows of the vehicles were followed, may be this would have been noticed by the people. The public is not totally insensitive. If the public had been able to see such kind of incident happening, it could have been stopped but it was not visible.”
“Sometimes we fail in our duties. When something bad happens, it is then that we start waking up,” he said.
The skewed sex ratio, also a fall out of rural economic trends, has led to more crimes against women. — PTI
A link needs to be drawn between rising crimes against women and the crisis in agriculture.
January 2, 2013:
As the tears over the brutal rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi dry up, the attention of the nation cannot but remain on the rapidly deteriorating gender relations in the country. Much of this attention will be on the male mindset and what should be done to change it. And there is no doubt that there is an urgent need to sensitise the Indian man to the rights of women.
But it will be a pity if this debate leaves out the larger context within which this crisis has occurred, including the contribution of the political economy of the last two decades.
The link between political economy and gender relations may appear tenuous, but that is only because we haven’t paid sufficient attention to what the prevailing relationship between economics and politics is doing to our society.
Politicians of a variety of hues have seen their task as essentially one of first generating rapid growth and then using these resources to gather political support through vote-gathering welfare schemes. And this divide between the economic and the political has been widened by the economics of liberalisation concentrating on urban centres and the rural areas being the main recipients of political patronage.
One of the corollaries of patronage politics in rural India has been the decline of agriculture. With the government shifting its attention from public investment in agriculture to rural welfare, agriculture became that much less profitable. The share of agriculture declined from around a third of GDP in 1991 to around a sixth of GDP today.
Just as agriculture was declining the management of patronage emerged as a major alternative career option. A farmer who could become a cog in the political wheel often found that role much more lucrative than agriculture. This was particularly true when they were innovative enough to find ways to cut themselves a slice of the patronage cake. Even when they could not do so directly they could find other ways to leverage their power to identify the beneficiaries of patronage.
The impact of the decline of agriculture on rural society cannot be measured in economic terms alone. As the French were fond of pointing out in WTO negotiations, agriculture is multifunctional.
It is the basis of rural social and cultural life, with several festivals that are celebrated even in our cities being based on the agricultural cycle. The decline of agriculture then also means the withering away of several traditional practices, including those related to gender.
Those familiar with the extreme inequities of the rural patriarchal family system will instinctively believe that this is a good thing. But the assumption that there can be nothing worse than the traditional agriculture-based patriarchal system may require more careful scrutiny. For all the inequities of the earlier system, it at least had an economic role for women.
Women workers play a significant role in agriculture, taking care of critical operations. The decline of agriculture reduces this economic role.
The system of political patronage that replaces agriculture has a much smaller role for women. Women do not usually play a prominent role in the violence of rural political confrontations. Even in situations where there are reservations for women in panchayat bodies, they are typically occupied by the relatively older married women in political families, and not unmarried women.
The effects of the movement from agriculture to patronage have seen the heartland of the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana becoming the centre of a region with rapidly declining child-sex ratios. And this skewed population is coming back to haunt the men of these regions.
A twenty-year-old young man born after liberalisation in these regions has very little scope for meaningful association with women.
The chances of relating to them at agricultural work are now much less. And with a demographic pattern of just seven or eight women for every ten men, the competition for meaningful interaction with single young women gets that much more intense.
With the old agriculture based value system — with all its inequities — no longer available, this competition takes on a Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest form.
If in the old system a young woman accompanied by her husband was seen as being out of bounds, in the social Darwinism that has emerged they are targets of jealous rage. And any relationship between a man and a woman that is outside the control of the local power structure, whether it is marriage within the same gothra or a couple at a pub, is seen as justification for violence.
It is tempting in the midst of the collapse of gender relations to blame the government of the day, Bollywood films, and the like.
But we need to ask ourselves if these failures are only the symptoms of a more widespread and chronic disease.
(The author is Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/narendar-pani/the-political-economy-of-rape/article4265740.ece?homepage=true
January 1, 2013:
“Fiscal cliff” was an impending event that has been averted for now. It had the potential of tripping over the financial markets in what has otherwise been a phenomenal year. The analogy that comes to mind is that of the Y2K way back in 2000. However, unlike the Y2K that passed out without a whimper, the effects of the “fiscal cliff” may have proven to be far-reaching.
Some of the highlights of the deal stuck at the midnight hour includes tax increases for individuals earning more than $400,000, both on income and capital gain/dividend, increase in real estate tax for estates for estates of $10 million per couple, extension of unemployment benefits and a two-month sequester to decide on the $1.2-trillion spending cuts (over the next 10 years) during which time 50 per cent of the cuts would come from defence and 50 per cent from non-defence programmes.
Under the current fiat monetary set-up, it is the loan operation conducted by the banks i.e. banks giving loans to people, corporates and governments, is what creates the money supply. In essence, when someone approaches the bank for getting a loan then under the prevailing system, the banks create credit out of thin air and lend it to the borrower which is simultaneously deposited in the bank account. The loans constitute an asset on the banks’ balance sheet and the deposits an equivalent liability. So, in other words, any loan taken by an individual, corporate or government increases the money supply and any loan paid back or defaulted reduces the money supply.
The financial crisis of 2008 began with the deleveraging of the financial and consumer sector of the economy, a process that still continues. This would have resulted in a prolonged reduction in money supply, with its deflationary consequences. However, this scenario was averted due to the coordinated actions of the Federal Reserve and US government. The US government, and governments the world over, increased their fiscal deficits. The reduction in the credit/money supply on account of the financial and consumer sector was offset by the increase in credit due to the higher fiscal deficits. Just so that this trillion dollar deficit spending doesn’t overwhelm the system, the Federal Reserve brought out its various versions of QE.
The process of deleveraging in the consumer and financial sector still continues and thus any sharp and sudden cut in the credit off take of US government has the potential to bring to an abrupt end the uneasy calm brought about since 2008.
Let history not repeat itself. The gradual recovery following the deep economic slumber of 1931 was brought to an abrupt end by the sudden cut in government deficits in 1937. So as the drama unfolds over the next couple of months, the world awaits if the New Year would bring about a financial dawn or dusk.
(The author is an independent financial consultant at Random Chalice Investment Research.)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/fiscal-troubles-remain/article4262406.ece
The HinduA file photo of Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram.
NEW DELHI, JAN 2:
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will hold pre-Budget consultations with India Inc on January 16.
The customary pre-Budget consultations will begin today with the first round to be held with the representatives of agriculture sector. Chidambaram is slated to meet trade union leaders on Thursday.
The pre-Budget meetings are crucial as it would help the Finance Minister decide on the suitable fiscal policy changes to be announced during Budget 2013-14.
This year's meetings are being held in the backdrop of a slowdown in economic growth. The Indian economy is expected to grow between 5.5-6 per cent this fiscal.
The sharp jump in current account deficit during the second quarter of this fiscal is also an issue of concern for policymakers.
srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/chidambaram-to-hold-prebudget-talks-with-india-inc-on-jan-16/article4264438.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home
January 2, 2013 -- Updated 1653 GMT (0053 HKT)
Winners
Vice President Joe Biden: This might not have been the "Big f***ing deal" that he proclaimed the passage of Obamacare to be, but it was a pretty big deal. Biden used his years of experience cutting deals in the Senate to work out a compromise with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He used the same playbook in the first extension of the Bush-era tax cuts in 2010 and the debt ceiling fight in 2011, walking through the proposal with progressives in the Senate and then the House to bring them in line.
Then he went and got a sandwich.
Biden hasn't ruled out a run for the White House when Obama's second term is up and his role in this deal makes a President Biden believable.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: He found the "dance partner" he was looking for in Biden and skillfully worked behind the scenes with the vice president to broker a deal that got overwhelming Republican support in the Senate.
It's too early to tell whether McConnell will pay the price with hard-line conservatives at home in Kentucky who have already shown that they can oust Senate incumbents who anger them by working with Democrats. No real Republican opponent has emerged in his re-election race in 2014 but they mobilized two years ago to elect Rand Paul to the Senate over McConnell's hand-picked candidate.Obama thanks Biden for 'great work'Focus needs to be on avoiding downgrades
Psaki: Fiscal cliff 'package is good'
President Barack Obama: White House insiders say he learned lessons in his first term and would be a tougher negotiator in his second. He didn't get the big deal that he set out for and some progressives think that he gave too much away, but getting Republican votes to raise taxes on the wealthy is significant. And he did pick Biden to be his vice president.
The wealthy: Despite higher taxes, it could have been a lot worse.
The unemployed: Another year of benefits for those actively looking for work.
Losers
The employed: The two-year payroll tax holiday is over, so take-home pay will go down -- around $2,000 less a year for the average wage earner as the rate went from 4.2% to 6.2%. But ending the tax holiday will add about $120 billion to federal coffers.
House Speaker John Boehner: He had to pull his "Plan B" back from the floor when it became clear that he didn't have the Republican votes for passage and then had to sit back and watch McConnell make a deal with Biden. On Tuesday, he was reduced to dodging microphones and listening to conservative members vent about the deal that was forced on them. While weakened, Boehner's standing appears safe, though. Really, who would want this job?
House Republicans: Could their reputation get any worse? First, they publicly threaten the deal passed by the Senate to up the anxiety for the nation on New Year's Day. And then they cave when the votes to add spending cuts to that proposal never materialized. Finally, they tell Superstorm Sandy victims waiting for more help from Washington to wait longer -- pushing back a vote on an aid package.
A grand bargain: Have you seen anything that makes you think these guys get a long-term deal done to address the real crisis on the debt ceiling a few more weeks down the road?
The can: That poor sucker gets a couple more dents and a few more scuffs as it gets kicked down the road again.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/02/politics/cliff-winners-and-losers/
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
January 01, 2013
In 2011, the President cut spending. In 2012, he kept his promise of asking the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to pay more while protecting 98 percent of families and 97 percent of small businesses from any income tax increase—raising $620 billion in revenue. As we move forward to address our ongoing fiscal challenges, both spending cuts and continuing to ask the wealthy to do a little more will be part of a balanced approach. It is critical for our economy and future generations that we reduce the deficit. We cannot keep racking up this debt on our kids. And the President looks forward to working with Republicans to reduce the deficit in a balanced and bipartisan way.
Permanently extends the middle-class tax cuts and also extends credits for working families, with additional measures to protect families and promote economic growth.
In globalisation, it is free for all carnival!Rangarajan Committee recommends average global prices for domestic gas!US fiscal deal doesn't solve the massive deficit problem!
Scam inflicted government has succeeded t o divert the national attention thanks to reform generation uprising against rape culture.Chidambaram has proved his ability to push reform drive to next generation. But the scams threaten to resurface once again as senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has termed Haryana's decision to set up a panel to probe his orders to cancel mutation of a land deal between Robert Vadra and real estate corporate DLF as a "cover up to the gargantuan land scams", and sought relevant file notings from the state government.Four days after the high-level panel submitted its inquiry report into the cancellation of mutation of 3.5 acre of land in Gurgaon, Khemka stood his ground on his findings in the controversial deal.
Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time, Chapter: Nine Hundred Forty Four
Palash Biswas
Mobile: 919903717833
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Scam inflicted government has succeeded t o divert the national attention thanks to rform generation uprising against rape culture.Chidambaram has proved his ability to push reform drive to next generation. But the scams threaten to resurface once again as senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has termed Haryana's decision to set up a panel to probe his orders to cancel mutation of a land deal between Robert Vadra and real estate corporate DLF as a "cover up to the gargantuan land scams", and sought relevant file notings from the state government.Four days after the high-level panel submitted its inquiry report into the cancellation of mutation of 3.5 acre of land in Gurgaon, Khemka stood his ground on his findings in the controversial deal.Meanwhile, the hindutva face of next prime minister faces yet another setback as Narendra Modi loses Lokayukta battle, SC upholds Governor Kamla Beniwal's choice Justice R A Mehta.The consumer culture is showcased with skin exposure as Trinamool member Mir Tahir Ali showers money on skimpily-dressed dancing girls!In globalisation, it is free for all carnival!
Rangarajan Committee recommends average global prices for domestic gas!
Government has imposed around five per cent cut in the Rs 1.93 lakh crore defence budget this year in view of economic slowdown.
The Ministry of Finance recently conveyed to the Defence Ministry that there would be a cut of around Rs 10,000 crore in the Rs 1.93 lakh crore allocated for the defence sector, Ministry officials said here.
After the cut in budget, several key acquisition plans of the three forces including the procurement of 126 combat aircraft for the IAF are expected to be pushed for the next fiscal, they said.
Defence Minister A K Antony had given indications in this regard recently when he said that the Ministry would be struggling to get even the allocated amount.
"I am struggling to get the budgetary amount," he had said when asked if he was hopeful of getting the additional Rs 40,000 crore sought by his ministry for modernisation of the three services.
In view of the cost-cutting measures, defence forces have been asked by the ministry to concentrate on prioritising their procurements.
Under the Rs 1.93 lakh crore budget, Rs 1,13,829 crore is for revenue expenditure including salaries and pensions and Rs 79,579 crore was allocated for modernising the armed forces by acquiring new assets.
A last-minute deal in Congress to avoid the economy-shaking ``fiscal cliff'' sent world stocks climbing on Wednesday but doesn't solve the problem of the massive US deficit, meaning other battles on deep spending cuts and the federal debt limit loom in the coming weeks and months.
The Dow Jones industrial average surged 200 points as US markets opened.
A smiling President Barack Obama said he would sign the law ``that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while preventing tax hikes that could have sent the economy back into recession.'' Then he left for Hawaii to resume his holiday break.
The deal that squeezed through a sharply divided Congress just hours before most financial markets reopened from the New Year's holiday keeps income taxes from rising on the middle class and the poor, but it puts off major decisions on more than $100 billion in defense and domestic spending cuts.
Congress also will have to act as early as February on raising the $16.4 trillion federal borrowing limit, which will allow the country to pay its bills. ``If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic, far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff,'' Obama said.
That means more potential drama ahead for those who have marveled at the inability of US leaders to address chronic deficit spending, especially Europeans, who have faced plenty of debt problems of their own. Obama warned that he will ``not have another debate with this Congress'' on the debt ceiling. Of course, the makeup of Congress changes on Thursday, when dozens of new members are seated.
If the fiscal deal had not been reached by then, the new Congress would have had to start over, and Americans would have faced automatic spending cuts and tax increases of more than $500 billion in 2013 alone. The fiscal cliff, with its Jan. 1 deadline, was put in place in 2011 as motivation for the Obama administration and Congress to find ways to reduce the deficit, which now averages about $1 trillion a year.
Economists had warned that the sudden combination of taxes and spending could have swung the country back into recession. Some have said even this limited fiscal deal with hurt economic growth this year.
The deal to avert that scenario, and put in place the first significant tax increase in two decades, passed a final hurdle when the House of Representatives passed it late Tuesday, despite loud protests from conservative Republicans who hate the idea of raising taxes at all. They wanted to see more spending cuts in the agreement. ``I'm embarrassed for this generation. Future generations deserve better,'' said one Republican opponent, Rep. Louie Gohmert.
The deal put off the issue of spending cuts, stopping $24 billion in spending cuts set to take effect over the next two months.
Moments after the vote, Obama strode into the White House briefing room and claimed a victory, though it was Vice President Joe Biden, a decades-long veteran of the Senate, who was called to the negotiating table to work with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell to get the deal through the Senate in the early hours of the new year.
President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden arrive to make a statement regarding the passage of the fiscal cliff bill Tuesday in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington. / AP
Past its own New Year’s deadline, a weary Congress sent President Obama legislation to avoid a national “fiscal cliff” of middle-class tax increases and spending cuts late Tuesday night.
The bill’s passage on a 257-167 vote in the House sealed a hard-won political triumph for the president less than two months after he secured re-election while calling for higher taxes on the wealthy.
Moments after the vote, Obama strode into the White House briefing room and declared, “Thanks to the votes of Republicans and Democrats in Congress I will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans while presenting tax hikes that could have sent the economy back into recession.”
He spoke with Vice President Joe Biden at his side, a recognition of the former senator’s role as the lead Democratic negotiator in final compromise talks with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Obama said that the ‘fiscal cliff’ deal follows the principle that the nation’s deficit needs to be cut in a balanced way.
In addition to neutralizing middle-class tax increases and spending cuts taking effect with the new year, the legislation will raise tax rates on incomes over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples. That was higher than the thresholds of $200,000 and $250,000 that Obama campaigned for.
But remarkably, in a party that swore off tax increases two decades ago, dozens of Republicans supported the bill at both ends of the Capitol.
The Senate approved the measure on a vote of 89-8 less than 24 hours earlier, and in the interim, rebellious House conservatives demanded a vote to add significant spending cuts to the measure. But in the end they retreated.
Supporters of the bill in both parties expressed regret that it was narrowly drawn, and fell far short of a sweeping plan that combined tax changes and spending cuts to reduce federal deficits. That proved to be a step too far in the two months since Obama called congressional leaders to the White House for a post-election stab at compromise.
APThe lights of the U.S. Capitol remain lit into the night as the House continues to work on the "fiscal cliff" legislation proposed by the Senate, in Washington on Tuesday.
U.S. ‘fiscal cliff’ deal passage ends standoff
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICEEnding a climactic fiscal showdown in the final hours of the 112th Congress, the House late on Tuesday passed and sent to President Barack Obama legislation to avert big income tax increases on most Americans and prevent large cuts in spending for the Pentagon and other government programs.
The measure, brought to the House floor less than 24 hours after its passage in the Senate, was approved 257-167, with 85 Republicans joining 172 Democrats in voting to allow income taxes to rise for the first time in two decades, in this case for the highest-earning Americans. “The one thing that I think, hopefully, the new year will focus on,” Mr. Obama said, “is seeing if we can put a package like this together with a little bit less drama, a little less brinkmanship, and not scare the heck out of folks quite as much.’’
FISCAL FIGHT
In approving the measure after days of legislative intrigue, Congress concluded its final and most pitched fight over fiscal policy, the culmination of two years of battles over taxes, the federal debt, spending and what to do to slow the growth in popular social programs.The decision by Republican leaders to allow the vote came despite widespread scorn among House Republicans for the bill, passed overwhelmingly by the Senate in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
They were unhappy that it did not include significant spending cuts in health and other social programs, which they say are essential to any long-term solution to the nation's debt.
Democrats, while hardly placated by the compromise, celebrated Mr. Obama’s nominal victory,
Many Republicans in their remarks characterized the measure, which allows taxes to go up on household income over $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for couples but makes permanent tax cuts for income below that level, as a victory of sorts.
Republicans hope to fight for more spending cuts in the upcoming debt-ceiling vote.
In a letter to Haryana Chief Secretary P K Chaudhery on Monday, Khemka, who had as Director General of Consolidation of Holdings, cancelled the mutation of land deal between businessman Robert Vadra and real estate giant DLF, wrote that his orders under Sec 42 of East-Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948, were "quasi- judicial and final."
Currently, MD of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation, Khemka has also sought a copy of the government order constituting the inquiry committee, its terms of reference and relevant file noting pages constituting the panel.
On being contacted, Khemka said the committee is a "sham to justify possible action against me as a cover to the gargantuan land scams".
"All this kind of humiliation and mental torture is to break me down psychologically," he claimed, adding that "vested interests" in the government have "pre-judged" the matter.
He said he is surprised that the affected individual or the corporate house is "not ostensibly aggrieved."
In his letter Khemka said, "the remedy for the affected party is to challenge the order by way of filing a writ petition in the high court".
Khemka has cited a case in which the Punjab and Haryana High Court had on September 6 last year directed the Hooda government to compile all orders of the DG consolidation, where precious panchayat lands were transferred to influential realtor companies.
"One of my orders pertaining to Chirsi village (Faridabad district) is also under challenge," he wrote.
The probe panel had submitted its report to the state Chief Secretary on December 28.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Vadra had sold 3.53 acre of land at Shikohpur village in Gurgaon district to DLF.
As DG Consolidation, Khemka had on October 15, last year set aside the mutation on the grounds that the assistant consolidation officer who had sanctioned it was not authorised to do so.
Chaudhery, meanwhile, said he was "examining" the probe panel's report.
In a setback to Narendra Modi, the Supreme Court today upheld the appointment of Justice (retd) R A Mehta as state Lokayukta by Governor Kamla Beniwal, saying it was done in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court.A bench of justices B S Chauhan and F M Ibrahim Kalifulla dismissed the Gujarat government's plea that the appointment was illegal as it was done without consulting it.
Watch video: SC setback for Narendra Modi
The bench said that the Governor is bound to act under the advice of the Council of Ministers, but the appointment of Justice Mehta is right as it was done in consultation with the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.
The apex court said that Justice Mehta can go ahead with his work as Lokayukta.
The Governor had on August 25, 2011 appointed Justice Mehta to the post of Lokayukta, which had been lying vacant for the last eight years.
The Gujarat government had moved the apex court against the January 18, 2012 order of the Gujarat High Court upholding the Governor's decision.
The High Court's verdict had been delivered by Justice V M Sahai after a division bench gave a split decision on the legitimacy of the Governor's action in appointing Justice Mehta, a retired judge of the Gujarat High Court, as Lokayukta.
The division bench of the High Court had given the split verdict on the appointment issue on October 11, 2011.
While Justice Akil Kureshi had upheld the decision of the Governor, Justice Sonia Gokani had quashed the warrant of appointment terming it to be unconstitutional.
Challenging the High Court's order in the Supreme Court, the state government had contended that the personal discretion exercised by the Governor in unilaterally issuing the warrant of appointment of Lokayukta was "unwarranted".
Bhangar (West Bengal) A controversy has broken out after skimpily-dressed dancing girls performed at a Trinamool Congress foundation day function at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district with TMC leader Mir Tahir Ali allegedly showering money on them.
Police stopped the function after midnight last night.
Organised at a stone's throw from the Bhangar police station, the function saw TMC leader and 24-Parganas Zilla Parishad member Mir Tahir Ali climb onto the stage and allegedly threw wads of currency notes at the direction of the dancing girls.
The Trinamool Congress termed it as an 'isolated' incident and said strict action will be taken against any party worker involved.
TMC MP Derek O' Brien said, "Thousands of events marked Trinamool's 16th birthday yesterday and one of these events from these 300 events was an abhorrent incident involving ladies dancing, it was an isolated incident, the strictest action will be taken against any party worker involved".
"Please do not portray this as something endorsed by Trinamool. For Trinamool, cultural sensibilities and gender sensibilities are absolutely paramount. Please be reassured it is not endorsed by anyone from Trinamool Congress....we will find out who were the people indulging in the crass display of gender insensitivity," he said.
The incident, which went viral on TV channels, was condemned by various sections of society, including political parties and the women's commission. They expressed their displeasure at the 'vulgar' political culture.
National Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma said, "It is shameful that they are celebrating this way. We need a change of mindset among all political parties".
Eminent educationist Sunanda Sanyal said, "The future of young boys and girls will get destroyed if this political culture remains prevalent in West Bengal".
TMC suspends leaders, activists involved in foundation day erotic dance
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday condemned and suspended the leaders and activists who were caught on camera heckling and throwing money at hired women dancers at one of its founding day celebrations.
TMC leader and spokesman Derek O'Brien said that a disciplinary committee may even consider sacking the persons involved from the party.
"One of the celebration events obviously went wrong. We condemn what happened. We need to find out who these people are, whether TMC workers or others. What happened last night was condemnable," O'Brien said.
"The TMC does not approve such events. We will get to the bottom of this. We will take appropriate action. There is absolutely zero tolerance on such matters. We have sent a team on the ground to find out," he added.
He also said there was no need for West Bengal Chief Minister and party president Mamata Banerjee to offer an apology for some of its party workers taking part in function in which women dancers were hired to perform an alleged erotic dance.
District-level TMC leaders and activists were caught on television throwing money on the hired women dancers during the function on Tuesday, leaving the party leadership embarassed.
The function was organised by Trinamool Congress district level leaders in Bhangore, near Kolkata. Trinamool zila parishad member Meer Taheer Ali is widely believed to have arranged the women dancers for the celebrations that took place right opposite the local police station.
O'Brien said there was no need for the media to play the dual role of both judge and executioner in the matter. A television channel described O'Brien's reaction as .
O'Brien reiterated that a statement on the incident has been issued in which it was also stated that the party had organized several commemorative programmes across the state to mark Trinamool Congress’ 15th foundation day.
The recording of the programme was also aired on local television channels.
The controversy comes at a time when the entire nation witnessed muted New year celebrations as a mark of respect for the 23-year-old Delhi student who died 13 days after she was brutally gang-raped and tortured by six men in a moving bus.
The controversy is likely to embarrass Banerjee,particularly at a time when security of women is high on the government’s agenda and clamour for stringent laws to deal with crimes against women is growing louder.
Defence Ministry staff, DRI constable among 5 arrested for molestation
New Delhi Five persons, including a Defence Ministry staff and a constable of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, were arrested for allegedly molesting a woman and trying to forcibly take her in their car on Sunday, police said today.
All the five persons involved in the case were arrested after a complaint filed by Roshni Devi, who alleged that her daughter-in-law was molested by the group at her hut in Bawana in northwest Delhi.
The five persons have been identified as Mahender (26), Sunil Dahiya (25), Rajneesh (28), Gopal (28) and Basant (31).
While Gopal is a multi-task staff in the Defence Ministry, Basant is a head constable in DRI.
Devi alleged that on Sunday the five men came in a car and entered into their hut when she along with her daughter-in-law was busy cooking dinner.
"They molested Reena and tried to abduct her at which Roshni Devi resisted and shouted. People gathered and overpowered them. All the five men have been arrested," a senior police official said, quoting the complainant.
SC to hear PIL seeking suspension of MPs and MLAs chargesheeted for crime against women
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a PIL filed by a former woman IAS officer seeking directions to the government to ensure safety of women and for conduct of fast-track court proceedings in all rape cases.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir will hear tomorrow the PIL which also sought suspension of MPs and MLAs in case a charge sheet is filed against them for crime against women.
In her PIL, retired IAS officer Promilla Shanker has pleaded with the court to direct the government to set up fast-track courts in all states for expeditious trial of rape
cases.
She also submitted that cases of rape and crime against women and children be investigated by lady police officials and trial be conducted by lady judges.
Meanwhile, another bench comprising justices P Sathasivam and Ranjan Gogoi issued notices to the Centre and all the states and sought their response on another PIL by advocate Mukesh Kumar seeking safety measures for women.
Kumar, in his PIL, demanded creation of women police stations in every town to investigate complaints of rape and sexual assault against women.
It also sought steps for implementation of UN convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
The court asked the Centre and the states to file their responses in four weeks.
The PILs come in the backdrop of the nation-wide outrage over December 16 brutal gangrape and assault of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi, who died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.
The Prime Minister-appointed Rangarajan Committee has suggested mandating a price of domestically produced natural gas at an average of international hub prices and cost of imported LNG instead of present mechanism of market discovery.The panel in its report made public today suggested first taking an average of the US, Europe and Japanese hub or market price and then averaging it out with the netback price of imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) to give sale price of domestically produced gas.
Industry sources, however, raised doubts saying acceptance of the recommendations would lead to overriding of the signed contracts. Currently, Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) provide for gas being sold at an arms-length price discovered through market bids invited from potential users.
Acceptance of the recommendation would mean government mandating a price of gas and ending the last of the remaining freedoms available, they said.
The government has already taken over the task of fixing users curbing marketing freedom guaranteed in PSC.
Sources also questioned how a market price in the US or Europe which is a function demand and supply in that region, could be applied to a hugely fuel deficit nation like India.
The US has low gas prices because of abundant fuel with the advant of shale gas while demand in Europe and Japan, unlike India, has fallen.
The panel headed by C Rangarajan, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said the PSC provides for arm's length pricing and prior Government approval of the formula or basis for gas pricing, subject to policy on natural gas pricing.
"Since no market-determined arm's length price currently obtains domestically and nor is this likely to happen for several more years, a policy on pricing of natural gas has been proposed," it said.
The Committee recommended deriving one price from "the volume-weighted net-back price to producers at (LNG) exporting country well-head for Indian imports for the trailing 12 months."
Simultaneously, the volume-weighted price of US's Henry Hub, UK's NBP and Japan Custom Cleared prices for the trailing 12 months be calculated.
"The arm's length price thus computed as the average of the two price estimates would apply equally to all sectors, regardless of their prioritisation for supply under the Gas Utilisation Policy," it said.
Industry sources said no LNG exporting country ever declares its netback or producer price and it would be extremely difficult to determine that.
"The proposed policy would provide for estimation of an unbiased arm's length price based on an average of two prices, which can be interpreted as alternative estimates of an arm's length price for the Indian producer," the Rangarajan panel said.
The suggested formula will apply to pricing decisions made in future, and can be reviewed after five years when the possibility of pricing based on direct gas-on-gas competition may be assessed, it added.
On the future exploration contracts, it said the existing PSC allows the contractor to recover his cost, before giving the government its share in the contractor's revenues, in case there is commercial discovery leading to production.
"Under this system, a close scrutiny of costs becomes critical for the Government since there is incentive for contractors to book as costs expenses that do not reflect the true economic cost to the contractor (eg through transfer pricing)," it said. "This is perceived by contractors as interference in commercial decision-making, whereas the government and CAG view it as legitimate and necessary."
Stating that cost recovery is at the root of the problems experienced, it proposed to dispense with it, in favour of sharing of the overall revenues of the contractor, without setting off any costs.
"The share will be determined through a competitive bid process for future PSCs," the report said. "The bids will be made in a bid matrix, in which the bidder will offer different percentage revenue shares for different levels of production and price levels."
This will ensure that as the contractor earns more, government gets progressively higher revenue, and will also safeguard government interest in case of a windfall arising from a price surge or a surprise geological find.
The committee has also recommended that an extended tax holiday of 10 years, as against 7 years already available for all blocks, be granted for blocks having a substantial portion involving drilling offshore at a depth of more than 1,500 metres, since cost of a single well can be as high as USD 150 million.
Further, the committee has recommended extending the timeframe for exploration in future PSCs for frontier, deep-water (offshore, at more than 400 m depth) and ultra-deep-water (offshore, at more than 1,500 m depth) blocks from eight years currently, to ten years.
Diesel deregulation: Need to look into dimensions of issue says FM
Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said that government will have to look into various dimensions of the issue before taking any decision on deregulating diesel prices.
"The government has to take into account several dimensions of issue before decision can be taken," he said, when asked about the possibility of deregulating diesel prices.
The issues concerning diesel are not unidimensional, the Minister said, adding while some argue for deregulation, the others say that it would fuel inflation.
"On one column (of a newspaper) you will say, deregulate diesel price and on another column you will say inflation (will rise). These are not unidimensional issues, you cannot approach a issue from one dimension," he said.
Overall inflation in November stood at 7.24 per cent, much above the Reserve Bank's comfort level of 5-6 per cent.
The government had in 2010 taken an "in-principle" decision to deregulate diesel prices, but could not implement it because of political pressure. The decision was based on the recommendations made by Kirit Parikh committee.
Price of diesel, which currently costs Rs 47.15 per litre in Delhi, was last revised on September 14 when it was hiked by a steep Rs 5.63 per litre.
The government has promised a cash support of Rs 30,000 crore to the oil marketing companies to cover a part of the Rs 85,586 crore revenue loss on fuel sales during April- September.
CJI promises swift justice for crimes against women
Inaugurating a fast track court that will try the accused in the case of gangrape-cum-murder of a Delhi girl, Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir today cautioned against lynch-mob mentality and promised swift justice in cases of sexual offences against women.
“It is good to know that after this rather tragic incident of 16 December, people have started raising their voices against certain crimes against society, against crime against women. But the immediate reaction of people has been that don’t put these persons to trial, hand them over to us, we will deal with them, hang them.
AFP
“Now these kinds of sentiments, which are emotional, are rather dangerous sentiments. But these emotions will continue until the matter comes to us and we deal with them expeditiously,” Justice Altamas Kabir said inaugurating the first of the five fast track courts that will hear cases of sexual offences against women.
The FTC, inaugurated by the CJI in Saket court complex in South Delhi in the presence of Delhi High Court Chief Justice D Murugesan, will conduct the trial of the accused in the gangrape of a Delhi girl who also suffered a brutal assault that led to her death in a Singapore hospital last week.
Justice Kabir said, “Let us not lose sight of the fact that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Let us balance things. Let us not get carried away. Provide justice in a fair but swift manner so that faith of people is once again restored that the judiciary is there behind the common man. These kinds of crimes, which have been on an upswing, will be taken care of.”
Stressing that December 16 incident of gangrape of the 23-year-old student was not an isolated incident and such crimes are happening everywhere, Justice Kabir said to address such crimes one has to understand what a woman goes through in such cases.
Addressing the judicial officers, he said, “Such crimes are not against the body of a woman but her soul.”
“The incident of December 16 is not an isolated incident. such matters are happening everyday. Even on that day itself, while the headline showed this particular case, on the third or fourth page of a newspaper, there was a little article of about six lines or eight lines that a ten-year old Delhi girl was gangraped and then set on fire,” he said stressing upon the need for fast-tracking all such cases of sexual offences.
“That did not capture the attention of people. This case did. Why is it that certain cases catch the attention? These are all equally reprehensible. Imagine a six-month-old baby being raped. It’s a small item in the newspaper and then it is taken away,” he said.
Promising swift justice, the CJI said, “I on my part will try my level best that the part of the case on administration side is taken care of and the things are done expeditiously in a fashion where the things can be brought to the court as expeditiously as possible.”
He also said “one has to understand the trauma a woman goes through, and this has been repeatedly said in our judgements, when she is forced against her will.
“It is not a crime against body but the soul itself. If the soul of the woman has to be saved one has to understand the psychology,” he said.
Justice Kabir also said, “The Fast Track Court, particularly for trying offences against women, is not only necessary but also welcome and the government has also woken up to this and has immediately agreed that there should be Fast Track court to try these kind of cases on a priority basis.”
While reiterating that all crimes are condemnable, the CJI said “crimes particularly against women, children, disabled persons need our immediate attention so that the perpetrators of these kind of crimes are brought to justice as quickly as possible, as swiftly as possible so that the message is sent to all and sundry that these matters are going to be dealt with seriously.”
The CJI also pointed that such incidents also happen because people do not follow or do what is needed to be done.
“Take a simple case, this particular incident happened in a moving bus which roamed for three hours in Delhi while this was being done inside. Nobody knew what was happening inside. This particular bus had tinted windows and curtains.
“If the directives which had been given by the Supreme Court to remove tinted glass or the film or curtains from the windows of the vehicles were followed, may be this would have been noticed by the people. The public is not totally insensitive. If the public had been able to see such kind of incident happening, it could have been stopped but it was not visible.”
“Sometimes we fail in our duties. When something bad happens, it is then that we start waking up,” he said.
The political economy of rape
NARENDAR PANIThe skewed sex ratio, also a fall out of rural economic trends, has led to more crimes against women. — PTI
A link needs to be drawn between rising crimes against women and the crisis in agriculture.
January 2, 2013:
As the tears over the brutal rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi dry up, the attention of the nation cannot but remain on the rapidly deteriorating gender relations in the country. Much of this attention will be on the male mindset and what should be done to change it. And there is no doubt that there is an urgent need to sensitise the Indian man to the rights of women.
But it will be a pity if this debate leaves out the larger context within which this crisis has occurred, including the contribution of the political economy of the last two decades.
The link between political economy and gender relations may appear tenuous, but that is only because we haven’t paid sufficient attention to what the prevailing relationship between economics and politics is doing to our society.
Politicians of a variety of hues have seen their task as essentially one of first generating rapid growth and then using these resources to gather political support through vote-gathering welfare schemes. And this divide between the economic and the political has been widened by the economics of liberalisation concentrating on urban centres and the rural areas being the main recipients of political patronage.
FARM CRISIS
This compact is now showing signs of strain at several points. The economic slowdown has reduced the resources available for patronage. The growth of cities and urban poverty has made it difficult for politicians to restrict their patronage to the villages. And, of great significance to gender relations, the reliance on patronage has fundamentally altered the social and economic fabric of rural India.One of the corollaries of patronage politics in rural India has been the decline of agriculture. With the government shifting its attention from public investment in agriculture to rural welfare, agriculture became that much less profitable. The share of agriculture declined from around a third of GDP in 1991 to around a sixth of GDP today.
Just as agriculture was declining the management of patronage emerged as a major alternative career option. A farmer who could become a cog in the political wheel often found that role much more lucrative than agriculture. This was particularly true when they were innovative enough to find ways to cut themselves a slice of the patronage cake. Even when they could not do so directly they could find other ways to leverage their power to identify the beneficiaries of patronage.
The impact of the decline of agriculture on rural society cannot be measured in economic terms alone. As the French were fond of pointing out in WTO negotiations, agriculture is multifunctional.
It is the basis of rural social and cultural life, with several festivals that are celebrated even in our cities being based on the agricultural cycle. The decline of agriculture then also means the withering away of several traditional practices, including those related to gender.
Those familiar with the extreme inequities of the rural patriarchal family system will instinctively believe that this is a good thing. But the assumption that there can be nothing worse than the traditional agriculture-based patriarchal system may require more careful scrutiny. For all the inequities of the earlier system, it at least had an economic role for women.
Women workers play a significant role in agriculture, taking care of critical operations. The decline of agriculture reduces this economic role.
The system of political patronage that replaces agriculture has a much smaller role for women. Women do not usually play a prominent role in the violence of rural political confrontations. Even in situations where there are reservations for women in panchayat bodies, they are typically occupied by the relatively older married women in political families, and not unmarried women.
SEX RATIOS
Over the last two decades this bias against women, especially single women, has been converted into demographic trends. With the use of available technology child sex ratios are being dramatically distorted.The effects of the movement from agriculture to patronage have seen the heartland of the Green Revolution in Punjab and Haryana becoming the centre of a region with rapidly declining child-sex ratios. And this skewed population is coming back to haunt the men of these regions.
A twenty-year-old young man born after liberalisation in these regions has very little scope for meaningful association with women.
The chances of relating to them at agricultural work are now much less. And with a demographic pattern of just seven or eight women for every ten men, the competition for meaningful interaction with single young women gets that much more intense.
With the old agriculture based value system — with all its inequities — no longer available, this competition takes on a Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest form.
If in the old system a young woman accompanied by her husband was seen as being out of bounds, in the social Darwinism that has emerged they are targets of jealous rage. And any relationship between a man and a woman that is outside the control of the local power structure, whether it is marriage within the same gothra or a couple at a pub, is seen as justification for violence.
It is tempting in the midst of the collapse of gender relations to blame the government of the day, Bollywood films, and the like.
But we need to ask ourselves if these failures are only the symptoms of a more widespread and chronic disease.
(The author is Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/narendar-pani/the-political-economy-of-rape/article4265740.ece?homepage=true
Fiscal troubles remain
HIMANSHU JAINJanuary 1, 2013:
“Fiscal cliff” was an impending event that has been averted for now. It had the potential of tripping over the financial markets in what has otherwise been a phenomenal year. The analogy that comes to mind is that of the Y2K way back in 2000. However, unlike the Y2K that passed out without a whimper, the effects of the “fiscal cliff” may have proven to be far-reaching.
MIDNIGHT HOUR
In August 2011 when the financial markets were on a boil, the US Senate increased the debt ceiling, which avoided any impeding threat of the US government falling back on its liabilities and interest payments. However, during the discussions, both sides concurred that this mounting Federal debt was unsustainable and hence had to be brought under control. But because of the deep ideological differences between the Republicans and Democrats, the two parties were not able to arrive at an understanding on how to reduce the US fiscal deficit. It was then decided that failing to reach an agreement by December 31, 2012 would lead to automatic, across-the-board spending cuts and increase in taxes due to the expiration of the Tax Relief Act of 2010. It was projected by the Congressional Budget Office that a sharp cut in the government spending may result in the US economy entering into a mild recession in the next fiscal.Some of the highlights of the deal stuck at the midnight hour includes tax increases for individuals earning more than $400,000, both on income and capital gain/dividend, increase in real estate tax for estates for estates of $10 million per couple, extension of unemployment benefits and a two-month sequester to decide on the $1.2-trillion spending cuts (over the next 10 years) during which time 50 per cent of the cuts would come from defence and 50 per cent from non-defence programmes.
CRUCIAL PERIOD
However, the slugfest has not yet ended. The details of the spending cut are yet to be worked out; the next two months are going to be very important not just for the US but for the entire world, as any wrong move would mean a sharp shrinkage in the credit/money supply. This could lead to a bout of deflation in asset markets and the real economy.Under the current fiat monetary set-up, it is the loan operation conducted by the banks i.e. banks giving loans to people, corporates and governments, is what creates the money supply. In essence, when someone approaches the bank for getting a loan then under the prevailing system, the banks create credit out of thin air and lend it to the borrower which is simultaneously deposited in the bank account. The loans constitute an asset on the banks’ balance sheet and the deposits an equivalent liability. So, in other words, any loan taken by an individual, corporate or government increases the money supply and any loan paid back or defaulted reduces the money supply.
The financial crisis of 2008 began with the deleveraging of the financial and consumer sector of the economy, a process that still continues. This would have resulted in a prolonged reduction in money supply, with its deflationary consequences. However, this scenario was averted due to the coordinated actions of the Federal Reserve and US government. The US government, and governments the world over, increased their fiscal deficits. The reduction in the credit/money supply on account of the financial and consumer sector was offset by the increase in credit due to the higher fiscal deficits. Just so that this trillion dollar deficit spending doesn’t overwhelm the system, the Federal Reserve brought out its various versions of QE.
The process of deleveraging in the consumer and financial sector still continues and thus any sharp and sudden cut in the credit off take of US government has the potential to bring to an abrupt end the uneasy calm brought about since 2008.
Let history not repeat itself. The gradual recovery following the deep economic slumber of 1931 was brought to an abrupt end by the sudden cut in government deficits in 1937. So as the drama unfolds over the next couple of months, the world awaits if the New Year would bring about a financial dawn or dusk.
(The author is an independent financial consultant at Random Chalice Investment Research.)
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/fiscal-troubles-remain/article4262406.ece
Chidambaram to hold pre-Budget talks with India Inc on Jan 16
K. R. SRIVATSThe HinduA file photo of Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram.
NEW DELHI, JAN 2:
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will hold pre-Budget consultations with India Inc on January 16.
The customary pre-Budget consultations will begin today with the first round to be held with the representatives of agriculture sector. Chidambaram is slated to meet trade union leaders on Thursday.
The pre-Budget meetings are crucial as it would help the Finance Minister decide on the suitable fiscal policy changes to be announced during Budget 2013-14.
This year's meetings are being held in the backdrop of a slowdown in economic growth. The Indian economy is expected to grow between 5.5-6 per cent this fiscal.
The sharp jump in current account deficit during the second quarter of this fiscal is also an issue of concern for policymakers.
srivats.kr@thehindu.co.in
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/chidambaram-to-hold-prebudget-talks-with-india-inc-on-jan-16/article4264438.ece?homepage=true&ref=wl_home
Fiscal cliff winners and losers
By John Helton, CNNJanuary 2, 2013 -- Updated 1653 GMT (0053 HKT)
Avlon, Hoover discuss Biden & McConnell
Washington (CNN) -- Congress went beyond the edge of the fiscal cliff to get a deal done in back-to-back, late-night sessions to avert a financial crisis, or at least to put it off for a couple months. Here are winners and losers in the deal:Winners
Vice President Joe Biden: This might not have been the "Big f***ing deal" that he proclaimed the passage of Obamacare to be, but it was a pretty big deal. Biden used his years of experience cutting deals in the Senate to work out a compromise with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He used the same playbook in the first extension of the Bush-era tax cuts in 2010 and the debt ceiling fight in 2011, walking through the proposal with progressives in the Senate and then the House to bring them in line.
Then he went and got a sandwich.
Biden hasn't ruled out a run for the White House when Obama's second term is up and his role in this deal makes a President Biden believable.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: He found the "dance partner" he was looking for in Biden and skillfully worked behind the scenes with the vice president to broker a deal that got overwhelming Republican support in the Senate.
It's too early to tell whether McConnell will pay the price with hard-line conservatives at home in Kentucky who have already shown that they can oust Senate incumbents who anger them by working with Democrats. No real Republican opponent has emerged in his re-election race in 2014 but they mobilized two years ago to elect Rand Paul to the Senate over McConnell's hand-picked candidate.Obama thanks Biden for 'great work'Focus needs to be on avoiding downgrades
Psaki: Fiscal cliff 'package is good'President Barack Obama: White House insiders say he learned lessons in his first term and would be a tougher negotiator in his second. He didn't get the big deal that he set out for and some progressives think that he gave too much away, but getting Republican votes to raise taxes on the wealthy is significant. And he did pick Biden to be his vice president.
The wealthy: Despite higher taxes, it could have been a lot worse.
The unemployed: Another year of benefits for those actively looking for work.
Losers
The employed: The two-year payroll tax holiday is over, so take-home pay will go down -- around $2,000 less a year for the average wage earner as the rate went from 4.2% to 6.2%. But ending the tax holiday will add about $120 billion to federal coffers.
House Speaker John Boehner: He had to pull his "Plan B" back from the floor when it became clear that he didn't have the Republican votes for passage and then had to sit back and watch McConnell make a deal with Biden. On Tuesday, he was reduced to dodging microphones and listening to conservative members vent about the deal that was forced on them. While weakened, Boehner's standing appears safe, though. Really, who would want this job?
House Republicans: Could their reputation get any worse? First, they publicly threaten the deal passed by the Senate to up the anxiety for the nation on New Year's Day. And then they cave when the votes to add spending cuts to that proposal never materialized. Finally, they tell Superstorm Sandy victims waiting for more help from Washington to wait longer -- pushing back a vote on an aid package.
A grand bargain: Have you seen anything that makes you think these guys get a long-term deal done to address the real crisis on the debt ceiling a few more weeks down the road?
The can: That poor sucker gets a couple more dents and a few more scuffs as it gets kicked down the road again.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/02/politics/cliff-winners-and-losers/
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
January 01, 2013
Fact Sheet: The Tax Agreement: A Victory for Middle-Class Families and the Economy
At this make or break moment for the middle class, the President achieved a bipartisan solution that keeps income taxes low for the middle class and grows the economy. For the first time in 20 years, Congress will have acted on a bipartisan basis to vote for significant new revenue. This means millionaires and billionaires will pay their fair share to reduce the deficit through a combination of permanent tax rate increases and reduced tax benefits. And this agreement ensures that we can continue to make investments in education, clean energy, and manufacturing that create jobs and strengthen the middle class.In 2011, the President cut spending. In 2012, he kept his promise of asking the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to pay more while protecting 98 percent of families and 97 percent of small businesses from any income tax increase—raising $620 billion in revenue. As we move forward to address our ongoing fiscal challenges, both spending cuts and continuing to ask the wealthy to do a little more will be part of a balanced approach. It is critical for our economy and future generations that we reduce the deficit. We cannot keep racking up this debt on our kids. And the President looks forward to working with Republicans to reduce the deficit in a balanced and bipartisan way.
Permanently extends the middle-class tax cuts and also extends credits for working families, with additional measures to protect families and promote economic growth.
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Permanent extension of the middle class tax cuts: This will provide certainty for 114 million households including lower tax rates, an expanded Child Tax Credit, and marriage penalty relief—steps that together will prevent the typical family of four from seeing a $2,200 tax increase next year. In addition, it includes a permanent Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) fix.
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Most progressive income tax code in decades: By raising income tax rates on the wealthiest and keeping taxes low for the middle class, the agreement will ensure we have the most progressive income tax code in decades.
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Extension of Emergency Unemployment Insurance benefits for 2 million people: The agreement will prevent 2 million people from losing UI benefits in January by extending emergency unemployment insurance benefits for one year.
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Extension of tax cuts for 25 million working families and students: The deal extends President Obama’s expansions of the Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and the President’s new American Opportunity Tax Credit, which helps families pay for college. The President fought hard to extend these credits, overcoming Republican insistence that income taxes go up by an average of $1,000 for 25 million working families and students. The agreement would extend them for five years.
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Extension of renewable energy incentives, the R&E tax credit and other business incentives: The agreement extends tax relief for businesses through the end of next year. This means extending the Production Tax Credit, a key incentive for renewable energy that many Republicans had been trying to end, as well as the Research & Experimentation tax credit. In addition, the agreement extends 50 percent bonus depreciation, a cost-effective temporary measure to support investment and growth. All of these would be extended through the end of 2013.
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Fixes the SGR (“doc fix”) with no cuts to the Affordable Care Act or to beneficiaries: The agreement avoids a 27 percent cut to reimbursements for doctors seeing Medicare patients for 2013 by fixing the sustainable growth rate formula through the end of next year (the “doc fix”). The President stood firm against Republican proposals to pay for this fix with cuts to the Affordable Care Act or the beneficiaries.
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Postpones the sequester for two months, paid for with $1 of revenue for every $1 of spending, with the spending balanced between defense and domestic: The agreement saves $24 billion, half in revenue and half from spending cuts which are divided equally between defense and nondefense, in order to delay the sequester for two months. This will give Congress time to work on a balanced plan to end the sequester permanently through a combination of additional revenue and spending cuts in a balanced manner.
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Restores the 39.6 percent rate for high-income households, as in the 1990s: The top rate would return to 39.6 percent for singles with incomes above $400,000 and married couples with incomes above $450,000.
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Capital gains rates for high-income households return to Clinton-era levels: The capital gains rate would return to what it was under President Clinton, 20 percent. Counting the 3.8 percent surcharge from the Affordable Care Act, dividends and capital gains would be taxed at a rate of 23.8 percent for high-income households. These tax rates would apply to singles above $400,000 and couples above $450,000.
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Reduced tax benefits for households making over $250,000 (for singles) and $300,000 (for couples): The agreement reinstates the Clinton-era limits on high-income tax benefits, the phaseout of itemized deductions (“Pease”) and the Personal Exemption Phaseout (“PEP”), for couples with incomes over $300,000 and singles with incomes over $250,000. These two provisions reduce tax benefits for high-income households. This sets the stage for future balanced approaches to deficit reduction, which could include additional revenue through tax reforms that reduce tax benefits for Americans making over $250,000.
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Raises tax rates on the wealthiest estates: The agreement raises the tax rate on the wealthiest estates – worth upwards of $5 million per person – from 35 percent to 40 percent, in contrast to Republican proposals to continue the current estate tax levels.
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The agreement’s $620 billion in revenue is 85 percent of the amount raised by the Senate-passed bill, if that bill had been enacted and made permanent: The agreement locks in $620 billion in high-income revenue over t
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