February 2020 Archives

Budget 2020: How did Nirmala Sitharman Manage to Rein in Fiscal Deficit at Only 3.8%?

The budget for 2020-21 is bullish on the government’s non-tax revenues.

Riding on an ambitious plan for disinvestment, a sharp jump in non-tax revenues and a tight control on outlays for subsidies as well as defence, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday promised to bring the Union government’s fiscal consolidation programme back on track.

Presenting the Union Budget for 2020-21, Sitharaman conceded a slippage in the current year’s fiscal deficit to 3.8% of gross domestic product (GDP). Last July, she had promised a fiscal deficit of 3.3%.

But for next year, she has promised to rein in the fiscal deficit by bringing it down to 3.5% of GDP and laying out a revised fiscal consolidation plan to bring the deficit down to 3.3% in 2021-22 and 3.1% in 2022-23.

However, these are only the headline fiscal deficit numbers and do not reveal the full impact of the extra-Budget borrowings of the government. In 2019-20, total extra-Budget borrowings (including those mobilised through the issue of bonds fully serviced by the government and the financial support extended through loans from the National Small Savings Fund) were estimated at Rs 1.73 trillion. For 2020-21, these borrowings are expected to rise by eight per cent to Rs 1.86 trillion.

If these extra-Budgetary borrowings are included in the Centre’s total borrowings, the actual fiscal deficit would go up to 4.5% of GDP in 2019-20 and to 4.36% in 2020-21.

Nevertheless, it must be accepted that the reduced fiscal deficit for next year has been achieved after conceding a larger devolution to the states (presumably because of the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission), a direct tax give-away of Rs 40,000 crore to individuals as a result of a new simplified personal income-tax regime, under which taxpayers could opt out of some of the exemptions and pay tax at a lower rate, and an estimated forgone revenue of Rs 25,000 crore as a result of the decision to tax dividend in the hands of recipients at their respective applicable rates, instead of taxing the entities that pay dividend.

How does she propose to achieve this near-miracle?

But, first, how did she manage to contain the fiscal deficit at 3.8 per cent, with a slippage of only 0.5 percentage point over the promised 3.3%? In 2019-20, she had to concede a net tax revenue shortfall of Rs 1.45 trillion and another shortfall of Rs 40,000 crore in disinvestment receipts, raising the total shortfall to Rs 1.85 trillion over what she had projected in the Budget Estimate. The finance minister reduced the government’s expenditure (about a fourth of which came from the reduced outgo on the Prime Minister’s Kisan Samman Nidhi programme) by Rs 88,000 crore. The transfer of surplus capital from the Reserve Bank also helped. The government’s dividend receipts went up by Rs 36,000 crore. That reduced the shortfall to about Rs 61,000 crore, which is less than the slippage of 0.5% of GDP.

Also read: In Budget 2020, Nirmala Sitharaman Targets Taxpayers and Loosens Fiscal Deficit

A bigger Budget deficit containment miracle is planned for 2020-21. On disinvestment, the government has promised to raise Rs 120,000 crore in 2020-21, compared to only Rs 65,000 crore in 2019-20. This is in itself an ambitious task, coming as it does after the government’s failure to meet its 2019-20 target of Rs 1,05,000 crore. The shortfall is most likely due to its failure to complete the privatisation of some of the big companies in the state sector.

Even more ambitious is the government’s plan to raise an additional Rs 90,000 crore from disinvestment of government equity in public-sector banks and financial institutions. Sitharaman said the disinvestment plan next year would include the sale of a part of the government’s holding in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) by way of an initial public offering (IPO). The total disinvestment proceeds in 2020-21 are budgeted at Rs 2.1 trillion, up 323% over Rs 65,000 crore in 2019-20.

Non-tax revenues to the rescue

The Budget for 2020-21 is also bullish on the government’s non-tax revenues. It has budgeted for a rise of 11 per cent to Rs 3.85 trillion. This reflects the reality of a reduced receipt from dividends and profits from central public-sector undertakings and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Having received the extra money from the RBI in 2019-20, it cannot rely on an even higher transfer from the central bank. Indeed, dividends and profits show a 22 per cent decline to Rs 1.55 trillion in 2020-21.

But what has come to the government’s rescue is the receipt of other non-tax revenues, which are to go up by 64 per cent to Rs 2.15 trillion. And this is largely due to a sharp increase in the government’s revenues from communication services to Rs 1.33 trillion in 2020-21, up from Rs 59,000 crore in 2019-20. This bonanza comes from the recent Supreme Court verdict mandating telecom companies to transfer pending dues on account of adjusted gross revenues to the Centre.

Subsidies growth frozen

On expenditure, the Budget for 2020-21 proposes a virtual freeze on its expenditure under this head for food, fertilisers and petroleum products at Rs 2.28 trillion. In the current year, subsidies under these heads have accounted Rs 2.27 trillion. The Budget does not make clear how a squeeze on subsidies would be achieved (the subsidy on fertilisers will actually decline), unless a plan for rationalisation of subsidies will also be implemented in the coming year.

Low defence spend rise a worry

A two per cent increase on defence expenditure to Rs 3.23 trillion will help keep the fiscal deficit under check, but it cannot meet the country’s growing defence requirements. The modest increase in defence expenditure must be a new low in many years.

Even for the much-vaunted Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) programme, which had envisaged the annual transfer of Rs 6,000 to each farmer family in the country, has received an outlay of Rs 75,000 crore for next year, compared to Rs 54,370 crore in 2019-20. This is a recognition that many states have not implemented the scheme and less than three-fourths of the allocated sum for the current year could be disbursed.

Capex up 18%

The government’s capital expenditure, however, has received a generous treatment, as this is expected to grow by 18 per cent to Rs 4.12 trillion in 2020-21. This is more than the 13% increase that was seen in 2019-20 at Rs 3.48 trillion.

But the higher allocation for capital expenditure has not helped the government much in increasing its total investments including those through internal and extra-budgetary resources of the central public-sector undertakings, including the Indian Railways. These will go up by only 2.4% to Rs 10.84 trillion in 2020-21. This is a sharp drop from the 16% increase to Rs 10.6 trillion seen in 2019-20. The meagre increase under this head will raise legitimate questions on the government’s grand plans to implement the National Infrastructure Pipeline projects, worth over Rs 100 trillion, in the next four years.

States gain from the 15h Finance Commission

The finance minister’s expenditure leeway must have been constrained by the recommendations of the Fifteenth Finance Commission, which the government has received for 2020-21. As a consequence, the central taxes shared with the states will go up by over 19 per cent to Rs 7.84 trillion in 2020-21. This is a big increase. In 2019-20, the states’ share in central taxes, in accordance with the earlier devolution formula, had declined by 14 per cent to Rs 6.56 trillion from Rs 7.61 trillion in 2018-19. The 19 per cent increase in the tax devolution to states for next year will be much higher than the 8 per cent rise in the Centre’s net tax revenues.

In short, the Union government’s total revenues for 2020-21 are slated to go up by Rs 3.15 trillion (net tax revenues by Rs 1.31 trillion, disinvestment by Rs 1.45 trillion and non-tax revenues by Rs 0.39 trillion) to a total of Rs 22.46 trillion. Against this increase, the government has budgeted a net increase of Rs 3.44 trillion in its total expenditure to Rs 30.42 trillion or about 13 per cent. The gap of Rs 7.96 trillion is being met by borrowing, which is the fiscal deficit amounting to 3.5 per cent of GDP.

Thumbs up to protectionism

Sitharaman’s second Budget will have come as a disappointment to those who expected the government to desist from becoming more protectionist by raising customs tariff. She has raised customs duty on as many as 22 items by varying margins ranging from 2.5 to 70 percentage points. The sharpest increases are on items such as walnuts (from 30 per cent to 100 per cent), toys (from 20 per cent to 60 per cent) and household goods, appliances, electrical appliances (from 10 to 20 per cent). Such increases in customs tariff have been taking place regularly in the past few Budgets and this year has been no exception, even though such moves work against making the domestic industry more competitive and efficient as well as improving the prospects of making the Make in India programme a success. Ironically, some of the increases in Customs have been effected in the name of promoting the Make in India programme.

To be sure, the customs duty on five items has been reduced. These include newsprint, on which customs duty had been raised in the previous Budget.

Sharp rise in tax buoyancy envisaged

On the direct tax side, the finance minister’s gross tax revenue growth estimates for 2020-21 are reasonable at 12 per cent (Rs 24.23 trillion), even though a projection of 10 per cent nominal growth in GDP would require a tax buoyancy of over 1.2, a sharp increase over the tax buoyancy of 0.53 seen in 2019-20. Corporation tax collections are expected to grow by 11 per cent to Rs 6.81 trillion, after seeing a decline in 2019-20. Personal income-tax collections are set to grow by 14 per cent to Rs 6.38 trillion. Goods and services tax (GST) collections for the Centre are budgeted to grow by 13 per cent to Rs 6.9 trillion, while customs and excise will grow by 10 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

By arrangement with Business Standard.

Revised J&K Internet Whitelist Includes More Kashmiri Portals, Removes JioChat

Technology experts had asked why JioChat would find itself on the list, when it not only allows video-calling and voice-calling but also group conversations with a 500-member limit.

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir government has announced an expanded whitelist of approved websites, which includes more Kashmiri websites. However, the Mukesh Ambani-owned JioChat, a messenger app, has been removed from this latest list.

After mobile phone and 2G internet services were restored, the government had announced a list of 301 websites which could be accessed in the union territory.

The Indian government had put a blanket ban on mobile and internet services ahead of the nullification of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which removed the autonomy of the state and bifurcated it into two union territories.

Over the last month, Jammu and Kashmir administration has restored partial internet connectivity in a phased manner.

While the home department stated on January 24 that there would be complete restriction on social media applications for ‘peer-to-peer’ communications, it had whitelisted JioChat.

Also read: ‘No Public Interest Involved’: J&K HC Dismisses PIL on Rizwan Pandit’s Custodial Death

There had been questions raised by technology experts, as reported by The Wire, as to why JioChat would find itself on the list, when it not only allows video-calling and voice-calling but also group conversations with a 500-member limit.

The earlier two lists had listed some prominent newspaper of Jammu and Kashmir, but had not listed several local portals.

Both these points have now been addressed in the latest whitelist. JioChat is no more among the approved applications

While the notification of January 31 does not specifically refer to JioChat, the home department observes, “Among other things, the terrorist activities and misuse of internet, accessed through Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications, for coordination of terror acts, transmission of rumours and targeted messages to spread ideologies inimical to the interest of the State have been taken note of as also the past incidents and apprehensions during the succeeding week.”

Meanwhile, portals like Jammu Links and Straight Line News, which were not part of the earlier list, have now been included in the new one.

In Budget 2020, Nirmala Sitharaman Targets Taxpayers and Loosens Fiscal Deficit

As per the first GDP advance estimates released in the first week of January 2020, several key economic indicators will likely to fall to multi-year lows this fiscal.

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the second Budget of the Modi government’s second term today. She kicked off her speech by mentioning Narendra Modi’s massive mandate in May 2019. Crucially, Sitharaman said that this is a Budget to boost income and enhance consumer spending. At the end of her speech, though, it was unclear what steps the government will be taking.

As has become the norm, she began the speech by listing the Modi government’s economic “achievements”. Among other achievements, she said that teething problems of the Goods and Services Tax. She spent a considerable time on this – but did not address the fact that the government’s biggest revenue problem this year was low GST collections.

This budget is being woven around three important themes, Sitharaman said. They are:

1. Aspirations of a New India (people want access to better jobs, education, healthcare).

2. Reforms across swathe of the economy, yielding more space for private sector.

3. A ‘caring society’ that is both humane and passionate.

Loosened fiscal deficit targets

“We have estimated the nominal growth of GDP for FY’21 on basis of trends available. Accordingly, receipts for the year FY’21 are estimated at Rs 22.46 lakh crore. Keeping in mind commitment of government to various schemes, level of expenditure at Rs 30.42 lakh crore,” Sitharaman said.

Sitharaman claimed that all flagship programmes of government have been fully provided for, and asked people to go check details in the budget documents.

“Expected tax buoyancy will take time,” she continued. “We estimate a fiscal deficit of 3.8% in FY’20 RE. And 3.5% for FY ’21 BE.” This means the government has loosened its fiscal deficit targets.

“I have taken a deviation of 0.5% consistent with sections of the FRBM Act,” the finance minister said. This was more or less expected, the Act allows an escape clause of .5 percentage points, which they are using. FY’19 fiscal deficit was supposed to 3.3%-3.4%. It will now be 3.8%.

Net market borrowing for FY’20 is Rs 4.99 lakh crore and for FY 21, it will be Rs 5.36 lakh crore.

Agriculture

Sitharaman said the government has a 16-point action plan to further the Modi government’s plan to double farmers’ income. Here’s what she said the government will do:

1. Encourage state governments who undertake the model laws – model agriculture land leasing act, model agriculture produce and marketing act, model agriculture livestock facilitation act 2015. States encouraged to consider the model acts favourably.

2. Government proposing measures for 100 water-stressed districts.

3. ‘Anndata can be urjadata’. Kusum scheme linked pump sets to solar energy; now the government will expand the scheme to provide support to 20 lakh farmers to establish stand alone solar pump sets. Scheme for farmers to set up solar powered units on fallow and barren lands. “So, that farmers can make a living from barren lands also.”

4. Current regime incentivises excessive use of chemical fertilisers. Farm lands will be encouraged to not use excessive fertiliser.

5. NABARD will undertake an exercise to geo-tag grain storage warehouses. There will also be viability gap funding to set up warehouses.

6. A village storage scheme proposed to be run by women SHGs. These SHGs can avail of Mudra and NABARD assistance to regain ‘danya laxmi’.

7. Indian Railways will set up a ‘kisan rail’ so that perishable goods can be easily and quickly transported.

8. ‘Kisan Udan’ by civil aviation ministry will help improve value realisation.

9. The agri-credit target for FY’21 is pegged at Rs 15 lakh crore. All eligible PM-Kisan beneficiaries to be covered by Kisan Credit Card Scheme.

10. Integrated farming system in rain-fed areas to be expanded. Solar in non crop areas. Zero budget natural farming will also be taken forward.

11. Financing on negotiable warehousing receipt to be integrated with ENam.

12. Agriculture credit to be increased. All PM Kisan beneficiaries to be given KCC.

13. Eliminate foot and mouth disease and PPR to be eliminated by 2025. Production of 108 metric tonnes of milk by 2025.

14. Blue economy: Framework of development and management of marine fisheries.

15. By 2023, raising food production to 200 lakh tonnes. Growing of algage, seaweed and cage culture will also be promoted.

16. The government will appoint sagar mitras and farmer producing units to ensure that rural youth can be employed.

Health

Sitharaman went through a dizzying array of healthcare announcements, most of which are about strengthening existing schemes such as TB awareness, Jan Aushadhi and Jan Arogya Yojana.

The Swachh Bharat Mission was given Rs 12.3 thousand crore.

Education/skilling

India’s education ministry will receive Rs 99,300 crore in funding. This is a slight bump compared to FY’20 BE, which was Rs 94,853 crore. The most important part though will be to see what the RE will be for FY’20, which is what we will know once the budget documents are uploaded.

Internships: The government will be giving fresh engineering graduates one-year internships with urban local bodies, Sitharaman said. This will be good experience for them and help ULBs plan better, she said.

The finance minister did not indicate if these “internships” will be paid, or how much.

A new exam: Sitharaman announces the introduction of ‘Ind-SAT’, an exam for Asian and African countries to help make India a higher education destination.

Infrastructure

Sitharaman brought up her National Infrastructure Pipeline project. This was announced a while ago, with an outlay of over Rs 100 lakh crore. She ran through a bizarre array of small details: a project preparation facility, making sure all government infra agencies rope in the youth, a National Logistics Policy and so on.

The National Highways Authority of India will “monetise at least 12 lots of highway bundles of over 6,000 km before 2024”, Sitharaman said.

The finance minister announced Rs 1.7 lakh crore for transport infrastructure in FY’21.

Smart, pre-paid meters for electricity connections are needed, said Sitharaman. Rs 22,000 crore to be allocated for to the renewable energy sector in FY’21.

The new economy

Sitharaman then turned her attention to the new economy. “AI, IoT, drones, DNA, quantum computing” – the FM listed out all the new buzzwords. “The government will bring out a new policy to build data centre parks throughout the country. Will enable India Inc to incorporate data in every step of value chain,” she said.

What is left unsaid: This is closely linked to Modi’s data localisation policy, which was actually diluted in the privacy bill in response to criticism by the Trump administration. And as always, follow the money. Many major corporate groups want to build data parks in India, including the Adani Group.

‘A caring Budget’

Sitharaman said Rs 28,600 will be allocated for “women-specific” programmes. She did not clarify what this means or what “women-specific” programmes are.

She also defended Modi’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme – to be greeted with protests from the house.

The FM said Rs 35,000 crore is being allocated for nutrition-related programmes in FY’21.

Similar to her vague announcement about women, Sitharaman said “Rs 9,500 crore is provided for FY’21 for senior citizens”. Again, she didn’t mention which schemes this is for.

Banking

Sitharaman went into some details of India’s financial sector, which is reeling from the NBFC crisis. In an important announcement, she said insurance cover of a depositor, which is now at Rs 1 lakh, will be raised to Rs 5 lakh. Changes will be made accordingly.

This is a welcome development, especially in light of recent failures in the urban-cooperative banking space (PMC Bank, etc).

Sitharaman also said that the government’s stake in IDBI Bank (which recently was taken over by LIC) will be divested to retail investors through the stock markets. Will it find takers though? That’s the key question.

An optional new income tax regime

Sitharaman announced a new income tax payer regime that will be voluntary.

1) Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh becomes 10%, from current prevailing 20%.

2) Rs 7.5 Lakh to Rs 10 Lakh becomes 15% from current prevailing 20%.

3) Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12.5 Lakh , becomes 20% from current prevailing 30%.

4) Rs 12.5 Lakh to Rs 15 lakh, from 25% current prevailing 30%,

5) Income above Rs 15 lakh will be 30% with no deduction.

‘Proposed tax structure wiill provide significant relief, says Sitharaman.

All this comes with a caveat that no exemption or deduction can be taken. Thus, a taxpayer can choose what she wants to go for.

“For example – a person earning Rs 15 lakh and not availing any deduction will be Rs 1.95,000 as compared to Rs 2,73,00,” the finance minister said.

The slowdown

This is the slowdown context in which Budget 2020 must be viewed. As per the first GDP advance estimates released in the first week of January 2020, several key economic indicators will likely to fall to multi-year lows this fiscal. Among them is investment growth, which is set to shrink to just 1%, the slowest in 17 years.

Here’s a snapshot of how FY’20 has been for India’s economy:

1) Investment (GFCF): 1%, lowest in 17 years.

2) GDP growth: 5%, lowest in 11 years (subject to possible revisions in light of FY’19’s downgrade).

3) Private consumption: 5.8%, lowest in six years.

4) Manufacturing: 2%, lowest in 15 years.

5) Agriculture: 2.8%, lowest in four years.

Also read: ‘Thalinomics’ to Defence of GDP Math: Economic Survey 2020 Finds Bright Spots in the Gloom

A layman’s guide to the Union Budget

There are ten key macro elements to the budget exercise. We’ve prepared a simple guide that explains how they all add up. But the most important bits include:

1) Balancing fiscal deficit math: The government had budgeted fiscal deficit (FD) at 3.3% of GDP in the July budget but subsequent to first advance estimate of GDP, this was automatically revised upward to 3.44%. Given the requirement of higher spending and subdued revenue collections, the FD could be higher at around 3.8%-4% for both FY’20 and FY’21.

2) Tax Revenue vis a vis GDP: Muted growth in tax revenue needs to be looked at in reference to growth in nominal GDP. In the previous budget, tax revenue was budgeted to grow by 11.1% while the nominal GDP growth was estimated at 12%. However, so far between April-November, tax revenue growth has been notably lower at 2.6% while the nominal GDP growth as per FY20 (AE) is shockingly at just 7.5%.

Lingering bottlenecks in GST collections coupled with corporate tax cut would make it difficult to project a significant jump in tax revenue.

3) Disinvestment target:One of the popular “capital receipts” is “disinvestment” which in recent years has been budgeted for more than Rs 1 lakh. However, so far this year the number has be around Rs 18,000 crore till December.

The government had approved strategic disinvestment of five CPSUs including two key entities namely BPCL and CCIL. Budgeting this number again at Rs 1 lakh crores for FY’21 would be achieving almost Rs 1.5 lakh crores in one year. Is this possible? That’s a good question.

In Local Courts, UP Police’s Cases Against Anti-CAA Protesters Fall Apart

Courts have granted bail to many arrested persons, saying the police have not provided evidence to support its claims.

New Delhi: In the cases related to the arrests of anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protesters and activists across Uttar Pradesh, police have faced several setbacks in local courts over the past few weeks.

On January 24, granting bail to two persons accused of rioting and attempt to murder during the anti-CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) protest in the sate, additional sessions judge of Bijnor Sanjiv Pandey said, “Without making any observation on the merits of the case, in my view, looking at the circumstances and the natures of offences, bail has to be granted to the accused.”

According to court records accessed by the Indian Express the judge noted, “I have heard arguments from both sides and have also perused the case diary… only Imran, named in the FIR, has been arrested from the spot. No other accused have been arrested from the spot. The prosecution has also argued that the police official was injured during stone-pelting. However, no such evidence has been placed by the prosecution, which shows that the accused persons indulged in vandalising shops or setting houses on fire…”

Also Read: Failing to Prove Rioting Charges, Muzaffarnagar Police Invoke JJ Act Against CAA Protestors

The court added, “The police has shown that it has seized .315 bore bullets. However, it has not shown any seizure of weapons from any of the accused persons.” Moreover, “According to the prosecution itself, no police official has received any bullet injury. It has shown that police officials have received injuries due to stone-pelting. However, no evidence has been produced that proves that anyone received serious injuries.”

It can be noted that Bijnor was one of the worst affected districts of violence in the state and the police had arrested over 100 people, lodging multiple FIRs alleging that they participated in violence reported at Nahtaur, Najibabad and Nagina areas of Bijnor.

People protest the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Delhi. Photo: Naomi Barton/The Wire

‘Falsely implicated’

In a similar, if not identical, case on January 17, a court in Bulandshahr district of the state granted bail to 13 people accused of perpetrating violence on December 20. According to a news report, in the bail order of one of the accused, the court observed, “The accused is not named in the FIR. The FIR was filed 15 hours later and he has been falsely implicated. The house of the accused is 8 km away from the spot (where the violence took place). No rioting, loot or attempt to murder was carried out by him. It is observed that he was not present at the spot and that police has no CCTV footage of the same.”

Moreover, on January 17, a district court in Muzaffarnagar granted bail to 14 people who were arrested in connection with violence during the protests on December 20. Reports said district judge Sanjay Kumar Pachori allowed their bail plea and directed that they be released after furnishing two sureties each of Rs 1 lakh. After a case was registered against ten students of a local madrassa, they were arrested. However, the students were also granted bail later by a court after the SIT probing the incidents found that there was no evidence against them.

Notably, this trend of police filing FIRs against innocent people, especially Muslims, was also observed by the People’s Tribunal on State Action in UP. According to the preliminary findings of the tribunal, “The Jury found and concluded that the UP police has been guilty of inflicting enormous violence targeting the Muslim community, peaceful protestors, and not even sparing those were not involved in the protest.”

Also Read: UP Police Inflicted ‘Enormous Violence’ on Muslims During Protests: People’s Tribunal

The jury comprised of former Delhi high court Chief Justice A.P. Shah, former Supreme Court Justice Sudarshan Reddy, former Chief Justice of Orissa high court V. Gopala Gowda, former chairperson of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Shantha Sinha and several others.

“The police brutality included, apart from violence inflicted on protestors, the arrest of and filing of false cases against innocent people,” they added. The jury said, “The complaints of the victims about police brutality, violence and destruction of property were either not filed or filed incorrectly. On the other hand, thousands of FIRs were filed against unnamed persons on accusation that protestors had become violent with the intention of continued harassment and intimidation.”

SC issues notice to UP government

Meanwhile on Friday, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Yogi Adityanath government, asking for its response to a petition against the state administration’s move to confiscate property of those who were allegedly involved in damaging public property during the anti-CAA and NRC agitations in December last year. The apex court issued the notice in a petition filed by advocate Parwaiz Arif Titu. The petitioner has alleged that the people whose properties have been ordered to be seized were only from one particular community.

According to Hindustan Times, the petition said the UP government had chosen to go by what it described as a “flawed” verdict of the Allahabad high court though the top court had clearly laid down the procedure that had to be followed. The petitioner had also presented some notices that had been issued. It is clear that people who had been sent notices had not even been booked in criminal cases, the petition says. “There is no detail of any crimes committed by them,” it adds.

A view of Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. Credit: PTI

Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. Photo: PTI

As The Wire has reported, experts say there is no legal backing for the UP government’s action to seize property of the alleged rioters. Several members of the legal fraternity have questioned this action and its basis and most lawyers The Wire spoke to insisted that the action was not in accordance with the law. Senior lawyer C.U. Singh had termed the action blatantly illegal. “This is grossly unconstitutional and illegal because it is not supported by any law and it results in pre-judging people without even the benefit of a fair trial,” said Singh. Questioning the action he further said, when “they have not even investigated anything, the UP government was acting like the ‘judge, jury and hangman’.”

It can be recalled that, following the violence in the state in December last year, several UP district administrations served recovery notices to people, asking them to pay up over Rs 50 lakh to avoid attachment of their properties for their alleged role in damaging public property. And this included the cases in which the district administration was yet to make a final estimate of the damage to property during anti-CAA protests. In Firozabad, the administration served show-cause notices to 26 people without making any final estimates of the damage of the public property. The families of some of those who were served notices told the Indian Express that they are daily wage labourers who were working when the violence was reported. Most recipients of the notices were in jail.

Coronavirus: 324 Indians Evacuated From Wuhan, Another Flight to Leave Delhi

The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep those evacuated from China’s Hubei province.

New Delhi: A special Air India plane landed here on Saturday morning after evacuating 324 Indian nationals from the novel coronavirus-hit Wuhan and another flight of the airline would leave the national capital for the Chinese city in the afternoon, officials said.

The first plane – Air India’s jumbo B747 aircraft carrying 211 students, 110 working professionals and three minors – reached Delhi around 7:30 am, they said.

There were five doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and one paramedical staff on board, said an Air India spokesperson.

The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep those evacuated from China’s Hubei province.

Officials said they would be monitored for any signs of infection for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

“With 324 passengers, a special flight has taken off for India from Wuhan. It may reach Delhi at 7:30 am,” said the Air India spokesperson at 1:19 am on Saturday.

The flight had departed from Delhi airport at 1:17 pm on Friday to evacuate Indian nationals from China, where more than 250 people – none of them Indian – have died due to novel coronavirus.

Hours after the arrival of the first flight from the Chinese city in Delhi, the Air India spokesperson said, “Another flight will depart to Wuhan from Delhi at 12.50 pm today with a different set of crew, same doctors’ team with other aircraft. The rescue team is again headed by Capt Amitabh Singh, Director Operation, Air India.”

Wuhan, Hubei’s capital, is the epicentre of novel coronavirus outbreak. The virus outbreak has killed 259 people in China with total confirmed cases surging to 11,791 amid stepped up efforts by a number of countries to evacuate their nationals from Hubei province, officials said on Saturday.

About Friday’s flight, the spokesperson had said earlier during the day, “A team of five doctors from RML hospital, one paramedical staff from Air India, with prescribed medicines from doctors, masks, overcoats, packed food are in the aircraft. A team of engineers, security personnel are also there in this special aircraft. Whole rescue mission is being led by Captain Amitabh Singh.”

The spokesperson had added that there were five cockpit crew members and 15 cabin crew members on Friday’s flight.

Before departure at Delhi airport, Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani had said, “No service will take place in the plane. Whatever food is there will be kept in seat pockets. As there will be no service, there will be no interaction (between cabin crew and passengers).”

“Masks have been arranged for the crew and passengers. For our crew, we have also arranged a complete protective gear,” he had added.

“Total five doctors from the Health Ministry are also going… The plane will be there (at Wuhan airport) for 2-3 hours,” Lohani had said.

Air India has done such evacuations earlier also from countries such as Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.

Budget 2020: New Fiscal Deficit for FY19 Is 3.8% as Govt Loosens Targets

This financial year has been particularly tough for the government, which has battled a GDP growth slowdown fuelled by waning consumption and muted private investment.

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman today presented the Narendra Modi government’s Budget for 2020-21. She loosened the fiscal deficit targets by 0.5%, from 3.2% to 3.8% for FY19.

Sitharaman announced a slew of measures in her speech on agriculture, health, infrastructure, etc. but without much detail on any of them.

The Union cabinet approved the Budget on Saturday morning.

This financial year has been particularly tough for the government, which has battled a GDP growth slowdown fuelled by waning consumption and muted private investment. With limited fiscal room and a mounting need for the Centre to address the slowdown, Budget 2020 sets the stage for how Sitharaman will act in the year ahead.

Over the next few hours, The Wire will bring you live updates, analysis and more.

Note: The live blog may take a few seconds to load. Please don’t go away!

Kafeel Khan Remanded to Judicial Custody, Transferred to Mathura Jail

Khan was accused of making an inflammatory speech at the university during anti-CAA protests on December 14th.

Aligarh, UP: Child specialist Kafeel Khan who was accused of making an inflammatory speech at Aligarh Muslim University was remanded to judicial custody and later transferred to Mathura jail, officials said on Saturday.

Circle Officer (Civil Lines) Anil Samania said Khan was brought here late Friday evening and was produced before the remand magistrate who remanded him to judicial custody.

Watch | Reinstate Me With Due Honour, Says Kafeel Khan After Being Found Innocent

He was sent to the Aligarh jail, but within an hour, he was transferred to Mathura jail, the official said.

He was accused of making an inflammatory speech at the university during anti-CAA protests on December 14.

Indian Economy Experiencing a Slowdown, Not a Recession: IMF Managing Director

Kristalina Georgieva said India had undertaken some important reforms that over the longer term would be beneficial for the country, but they do have some short-term impact.

Washington: The Indian economy experienced some abrupt slowdown in 2019 due to turbulence in non-banking financial institutions and major reform measures such as GST and demonetisation, but it is not in a recession, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

“The Indian economy indeed has experienced an abrupt slowdown in 2019. We had to revise our growth projections, downwards to 4% for last year. We are expecting 5.8% (growth rate) in 2020 and then an upward trajectory to 6.5% in 2021,” Georgieva told a group of foreign journalists here on Friday.

“It appears that the main reason for this slowdown was the non-banking financial institutions experiencing a turbulence,” she said on the eve of Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presenting the annual budget in Parliament on Saturday.

She said India had undertaken some important reforms that over the longer term would be beneficial for the country, but they do have some short-term impact.

“For example, coming with the unified tax system, and the demonetisation that took place. These are steps that over time are beneficial, but of course they might, might be somewhat disruptive over short term,” Georgieva said in response to a question.

IMF managing director said that there is not a lot of fiscal space in India. But we also recognise that the policies of the government on that side, on the fiscal side have been prudent. We will see how the reading of the budget, the submission of the budget goes, tomorrow, she said.

Also read: Budget 2020: India’s Silent Fiscal Heart Attack Persists

In the medium-term, she said, the IMF remains optimistic about India. This is why we see that upswing potential for the growth in the country, she said.

Georgieva said that the current economic slowdown cannot be described as a recession. “No… You’re far from that. But it is a significant slowdown, not the recession,” she said.

The IMF managing Director noted that the consumption in India also slowed down and that contributed to the overall slowdown in the economy. The IMF would be keen to see what India does to get relatively sound macroeconomic fundamentals to pay off in terms of better growth trajectory, she said ahead of the budget.

One thing that is important for India is that budgetary revenue have been below target. “The country knows that. The finance minister knows it. They need to increase budgetary revenue collection so they can improve their fiscal position. I said it’s tight on the spending side, but I also want to stress that there is room to improve collection on the revenue side,” Georgieva said.

President Rejects Another Nirbhaya Convict’s Clemency Petition

The president had last month also rejected the clemency petition of another accused, Mukesh Singh.

New Delhi: President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the clemency plea of Vinay Kumar Sharma, one of the four men facing the gallows in the 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case, home ministry officials said on Saturday.

Sharma filed a mercy petition before the president on Wednesday, his lawyer had said.

Kovind has rejected Sharma’s mercy plea, the officials said.

The president had last month also rejected the clemency petition of another accused, Mukesh Singh.

The 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’ (fearless), was gangraped and assaulted on the night of December 16, 2012, in a moving bus in South Delhi. She died of her injuries a fortnight later in a Singapore hospital.

The brutality of the crime shook the nation, leading to country-wide protests and a change in India’s rape laws.

Six people – Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay Kumar Singh, Pawan Gupta, Ram Singh and a juvenile – were named as accused.

The trial of the five adult men began in a special fast-track court in March 2013.

The prime accused, Ram Singh, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Tihar jail days after the trial began. The juvenile, who was said to be the most brutal of the attackers, was put in a correctional home for three years.

He was released in 2015 and sent to an undisclosed location amid concerns over a threat to his life. The juvenile, when released, was 20 years old.

Also read: Death Penalty Opponents Are Wrong to Ask Nirbhaya’s Parents to Forgive Her Killers

Mukesh, Vinay, Akshay and Pawan were convicted and sentenced to death in September 2013.

They were to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar Jail, a Delhi court had announced on January 7 while issuing their death warrants.

However, the Delhi government informed the high court during a hearing that the execution of the convicts will not take place on the designated day as a mercy plea had been filed by Mukesh.

Following the rejection of Mukesh’s plea, a Delhi court had issued black warrant fixing the hanging of all the four convicts on February 1.

The scheduled hanging on Saturday was postponed for the second time again on Friday by a local court here.

Reacting in anguish to the delay in the hanging, Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi has said she will continue her fight till the convicts are hanged.

“These convicts have no right to live. We keep getting disappointed by the system. I will continue my fight till the convicts are hanged,” she said.

A Divided Britain Enters an Uncertain Era as It Leaves the European Union

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there may be “bumps in the road” ahead but vowed that the departure was an opportunity for “stunning success.”

The UK officially left the EU at 23:00 GMT on Friday night after 47 years within the European bloc.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson released an address an hour before the UK left, saying Brexit offered an opportunity to “take back control.”
Celebrations were held in Parliament Square in London and an image of iconic clock Big Ben was projected onto the walls of Whitehall to count down the time until Brexit.
UK lawmakers and voters continue to remain divided over leaving the EU.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised a “new era of friendly cooperation” with the EU, in an address released an hour before the UK left the now 27-member bloc, as thousands of Brexit supporters gathered to celebrate across the country.

Johnson said there may be “bumps in the road” ahead but vowed that the departure was an opportunity for “stunning success.”

He also said Brexit as a chance for a new start and emphasized the country’s ability to succeed now it had “taken back control.”

“The most important thing to say tonight is that this is not an end but a beginning. This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act in our great national drama,” said Johnson in a pre-recorded speech posted on his Facebook page at 22:00 GMT.

Also read: What Happens After Britain Leaves the EU?

Brexit would give the UK government “new powers” to carry out policies that people in the UK had voted for, said Johnson. These changes would take the shape of “controlling immigration or creating freeports or liberating our fishing industry or doing free trade deals.

A close friendship with the EU

In his address, Johnson refrained from criticizing the EU in his speech, saying that the UK and EU had simply “evolved” in differing directions and calling the EU “friends.”

“We want this to be the beginning of a new era of friendly cooperation between the EU and an energetic Britain.” His sentiments echoed the rhetoric of the EU parliament as lawmakers said goodbye to Britain while stressing the importance of maintaining a close relationship.

Brexit day celebrations

Brexit celebrations were held across the country with a large party organized by Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit party and most prominent leader of the Brexit movement in the UK, in Parliament Square, near to the UK government’s buildings in Westminster, London.

Large crowds chanting “Brexit” gathered in the square to countdown to 23:00 GMT when the UK officially left the EU. The UK government projected a Brexit countdown clock onto the walls of the government offices in London and played a recorded sound of iconic clock Big Ben ringing, as the actual bell is undergoing renovation.

Farage joined the crowd singing the national anthem and later addressed crowds who were waving both Union Jack flags and the English red-and-white flag. “We can celebrate the fact that free from the constraints of the EU, we once again will be able to find our place in the world,” he said.

A mixed reaction to Brexit day

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister tweeted a picture of the EU flag and “Scotland will return to the heart of Europe as an independent country #LeaveALightOnForScotland.” A majority of Scottish people voted to remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum, in contrast to England where a majority voted to leave.

Also read: Brexit Day: What Changes After January 31?

An EU and Scottish government buildings reflected Scottish EU lawmaker Aileen McLeod request that the EU to “leave a light on for Scotland.” The Scottish parliament building was lit up in EU colours of purple and yellow, and the EU Commission building in Brussels also projected a message of Europe’s love for Scotland.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US would keep building “strong” ties with Britain following its departure from the EU. “I am pleased the UK and EU have agreed on a #Brexit deal that honors the will of the British people,” he tweeted.

Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission president, spoke to DW, saying that “it’s a very emotional day” but reiterated that the EU “will have a future partnership” due to the many interests and topics the UK and EU have in common.

Joao Vale de Almeida, the new EU ambassador to the UK tweeted he was “looking for to constructively engaging with British authorities and British people, laying the foundations for a solid EU/UK relationship.”

The article was originally published on DW. You can read it here.