Jaitley’s googlies

Over the last three years, the Modi government has been using the instruments of ordinances and money Billsto achieve its legislative agenda. The latest instance is the issue of extending GST to Jammu and Kashmir. Not only did Jaitley take the ordinance route to accomplish the task, he also labelled the two Bills replacing the ordinances as ‘Money Bills’.

Result: The House of Elders (upper house) were mute spectators, wrongfooted yet again by the ‘Money Bill’ googly thrown at them by the ruling dispensation. Did we hear Jaitley say, “Trust me, I am a lawyer.”??

Spice bias

For some farmers in Guntur, the recently introduced GST has come as a rude shock. The GST Council has imposed 5 per cent GST on the red chilli, while keeping the green chilli out of the tax net! Perhaps the council treats the green chilli as agricultural commodity, and the red as a processed food.

Guntur MP Jayadev Galla tried his best to get the attention of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha the other day in order to raise this issue. He went on to explain how red chillies are dried in the sun and therefore it is a natural process carried out by farmers. Also, earlier there was no VAT or sales tax on red chillies.

Given that Guntur accounts for 20 per cent of chillies produced globally, Galla’s concern is understandable.

Towering woes

Telecom services providers in Delhi are in a fix as the New Delhi Municipal Council is dismantling allegedly ‘illegal’ mobile towers. These ‘Cell on wheels’ towers have been temporarily set up by telecom operators in locations where conventional overhead towers are not easy to install but consumer demand is high.

The municipal body is of the opinion that CoW towers are resulting in a loss in revenues that would have otherwise come if conventional towers were installed. Until the local body and telecom companies settle the issue, consumers can expect extended spells of dropped calls and network errors.

Food security jinx

The presser on the implementation of the National Food Security Act is turning out to be a jinx for Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. The briefing was scheduled twice in last 10 days, but the minister cancelled at the last moment on both occasions. The first briefing, scheduled for July 28, was cancelled because Paswan feared that he might have to field more questions on Nitish Kumar’s trust vote — held the same day — than on the Food Security Act.

The second time around, on August 3, he had no choice but cancel it as the PM had asked him to be present in the House. Interestingly, just two days earlier, the Modi government had suffered a major embarrassment in the Rajya Sabha by falling short of numbers, leading to the Opposition managing to defeat a crucial amendment Bill.

Paswan has now decided to hold the press conference only after the monsoon session comes to an end on August 11. Better late that never was never more true.

Chapati as launchpad

At the launch of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar addressed a joint panel discussion with the chairman of USISPF and executive chairman of CISCO Systems, John Chambers; he was asked to talk about the key focus of Indo-US ties.

Going all culinary, Jaishankar said India-US ties had reached the stage of a ‘chapati’ or ‘sub-parantha’ but had not yet reached the ‘puri’ stage. The USISPF was launched under the umbrella of the US Chamber of Commerce to expand India-US ties, and, in this instance, provide food for thought!

Related Topics