many thankssatya wrote:ChetakJi :http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/ ... JI20150506
"I would highlight that equity market valuations at this point generally are quite high," Yellen said. "There are potential dangers there."
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/smile.gif)
many thankssatya wrote:ChetakJi :http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/ ... JI20150506
"I would highlight that equity market valuations at this point generally are quite high," Yellen said. "There are potential dangers there."
You are right. it is not "common" sense to understand how does it matter which entity has what powers. The field of governance is actually a highly specialized discipline of study that many top brains at top universities spend a life time to understand modes and principles of governance and produce top practitioners in the art, who shape our future.Supratik wrote:@ShauryaT
Per my understanding GST is meant to be revenue neutral for states. Use some common sense. How does it matter which entity collects the tax as long as it is revenue neutral for the states? The benefits have already been mentioned in my posts.
Your other arguments are veering towards loose confederation or autonomy for the states. That is OT.
ShauryaT garu,ShauryaT wrote:You are right. it is not "common" sense to understand how does it matter which entity has what powers. The field of governance is actually a highly specialized discipline of study that many top brains at top universities spend a life time to understand modes and principles of governance and produce top practitioners in the art, who shape our future.Supratik wrote:@ShauryaT
Per my understanding GST is meant to be revenue neutral for states. Use some common sense. How does it matter which entity collects the tax as long as it is revenue neutral for the states? The benefits have already been mentioned in my posts.
Your other arguments are veering towards loose confederation or autonomy for the states. That is OT.
Principles and modes of governance have a long history of how they evolve and the degree to which they are in sync with the population and land being governed. Since, this topic is veering to OT territory, I will stop here having made my limited point.
The latter part, if retained, would have preserved the state's powers even under a new mechanism. In addition, it would have been far better if states were asked to put in the institutional mechanisms to collect this tax, instead of the center.Suraj wrote: Two, is a single rate good enough ? Here, I think SGSTs should have a range, within with state finance ministers can raise or lower rates to suit the state economy.
But you need to confirm this, right ? The 'if' part makes the whole argument theoretical, not fact. Since you have a source, you can ask that.atamjeetsingh wrote:Now if state levy GST on top of stamp duty for transaction pertaining to selling or purchasing property that will be double taxation. Land is in state subject list as per constitution so why would states let it go.
The specification of the rate is under the gamut of the GST Council, which is led by the Union FM and every state FM is a member. The specification of the rate is NOT part of the constitutional amendment bill. Instead it is part of the associated money bill, which can be updated without needing to touch the constitutonal amendment once that is passed.ShauryaT wrote:The latter part, if retained, would have preserved the state's powers even under a new mechanism. In addition, it would have been far better if states were asked to put in the institutional mechanisms to collect this tax, instead of the center.
The uniform rate part is not confirmed. I don't support it either, and probably do the states. Different states have different localized economic priorities that may require them to raise or lower the effective SGST rate (they've no control over CGST rate). So I think it will be in a band, within which states can set their individual SGST rate.atamjeetsingh wrote:^^^^
HR excise and taxation dept collects taxes like VAT, CST(Central Sales Tax, Centers sales tax portion is also collected by HR E&T Dept except on gold and opium), PGT(passengers and goods tax), Entertainment Tax, Luxury tax, Excise tax. All these taxes will be put under GST now and will have uniform tax rates all over India.
That is not correct.ShauryaT wrote:If you are referring to the finance commission recommendations, then that is all they are recommendations and executing upon them is at the discretion of the government of the day and not vested in law.
The previous figure was 32%, and it has been effectively increased to over 50% now: 42% to states and the rest to local bodies and deficit bridging grants.In a letter to all chief ministers, Modi said: "We have wholeheartedly accepted the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, although it puts a tremendous strain on the Centre's finances."
"The 14th Finance Commission has recommended a record increase of 10 per cent in the devolution of the divisible pool of resources to states," he said, according to a release from the prime minister's office.
As per the increased devolution suggested in the report of the 14th Finance Commission, the states will get Rs 348,000 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 526,000 crore in 2015-16.
"There is a shift from scheme- and grant-based support from the central government to a devolution-based support. Hence, the devolution of 42 per cent of divisible resources," the PMO said.
"The total devolution to states in 2015-16 will be significantly higher than in 2014-15. This naturally leaves far less money with the central government," it added.
"Beyond this 42 per cent and the grants to states for strengthening gram panchayats and municipal bodies, an additional amount has been allocated for 11 states that will still be revenue deficit after devolution," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters in New Delhi.
"The big among these deficit states have been identified as Andhra Pradesh after division, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal while the smaller ones include some northeastern states like Manipur and Nagaland," he added.
After assessing the revenue and expenditure of the states for the period 2015-20, the commission has recommended a grant of Rs.1.94 crore (Rs.19.4 million) to meet the deficit of these 11 states.
"The higher tax devolution will allow states greater autonomy in financing and designing of schemes as per their needs and requirements," the report said.
"The consequence of this much greater devolution to the states is that the fiscal space for the centre will reduce in the same proportion," it added.
"States cannot become dependent on the Centre, while the command and control system of the past cannot work. It is this spirit of cooperative federalism that has underpinned the constitution of the NITI Aayog," Jaitley said.
"In the past, when Finance Commissions have recommended an increase, it has been in the range of 1-2 percent," he added.
The government has also accepted the recommendations of the commission on devolution of higher resources to the local bodies.
The total grant to the local bodies including panchayats and municipalities for the five-year period ending March 31, 2020 works out to Rs.288,000 crore.
But it matters to Maharashtra to discourage say lumber by increasing its taxes or to Himachal to do the opposite. It matters to Chattisgarh as now it cannot easily offer a tax holiday for certain types of industries, it may want to offer in certain areas of the state. You know the point, so I will not belabor it or post lengthy articles.Suraj wrote: The specification of the rate is under the gamut of the GST Council, which is led by the Union FM and every state FM is a member. The specification of the rate is NOT part of the constitutional amendment bill. Instead it is part of the associated money bill, which can be updated without needing to touch the constitutonal amendment once that is passed.
Let's stick to the economic result here, not federalism theory. From the economics perspective, it doesn't matter if the cat is black, white or some shade of grey as long as it effectively catches mice.
You questioned whether the high minded recommendations of the Finance Commission would be accepted. In general, yes, it is 'upto the government of the data to accept them'. I just pointed out that they've most enthusiastically done so already. In other words, this government is very much in favour of devolution of economic powers to states. It is also in favour of a common market through the implementation of a GST, which was first championed by Vajpayee, pushed further by UPA and now almost at culmination thanks to this administration.ShauryaT wrote:^^What part of my statement is not correct? I am not debating the actions or intent of a single government.
The GST constitutional amendment does NOT set a fixed rate. It has not even been established what the rate is, if the SGST rate can be set within a band by individual states, etc. And none of these are within the purview of the constitutional amendment, but that of the GST council. What's more, none of this will stop anyone from logging or mining sand. Do you think the sand mafia would promptly stop digging up sand because the tax rate changed ? No, that's really a question of enforcement and not tax rate.ShauryaT wrote:But it matters to Maharashtra to discourage say lumber by increasing its taxes or to Himachal to do the opposite. It matters to Chattisgarh as now it cannot easily offer a tax holiday for certain types of industries, it may want to offer in certain areas of the state. You know the point, so I will not belabor it or post lengthy articles.
In 2014, car sales were up a mere 2.5%. So far this year:Domestic passenger car sales grew 18.14% to 1,59,548 units in April this year compared with 1,35,054 in the same month of 2014.
According to the data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), motorcycle sales last month were down 2.77% at 8,81,751 units from 9,06,909 in the same month of the previous year.
Total two-wheeler sales in April 2015 slumped 0.16% to 12,87,064 units from 12,89,183 in the year-ago period.
Total sales of commercial vehicles, however, jumped 6.48% to 45,872 units from 43,080 a year ago, SIAM said.
The Narendra Modi government is giving shape to a National Industrial Corridor Development Authority (NICDA), to consolidate the financing and to expedite the massive work on the economic corridors. A proposal to this effect will be moved to the Cabinet for approval by the end of this month.
The body will have a financial corpus of Rs 19,000 crore and it will be headed by a CEO. It will also be entrusted with the work of planning and designing of the corridors.
The government has so far conceptualised five economic corridors: Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), Bengaluru- Mumbai Economic Corridor (BMEC), Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor (CBIC), Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor (VCIC) and Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC).
According to the plan, out of the Rs 19,000-crore corpus, around Rs 2,000 crore will be allowed for four industrial corridors and the rest will be set aside for DMIC.
Work on DMIC got delayed and it has now reached the take-off stage, said the official cited above.
Nothing against trying to achieve free movement of goods in the country, GST is not the only way to do so. The following article is dated and some specifics may have changed but this GST idea is now 10 years old but the gist of the message still applies.Supratik wrote:@ShauryaT,
Why do you want states to introduce market distortions in a country which is still one? It will benefit states that are not industrialized as taxation will be a level playing field. Now the competition will be on who can provide the best infra for industries. Coastal states like TN and GJ which were initially opposed to GST will continue to draw industries as it is easier for them to export and import through ports.
The debate over the goods and services tax (GST) conflates two objectives. Firstly, rationalizing and merging various indirect taxes to have internal borderless travel of goods and services so that better economies of scale can be realized. And secondly, to then have a uniform tax rate in all the states—which is ostensibly crucial to integrate the market.
But an integrated market—with no border delays and octroi—can be fully achieved with better use of information technology and better state-Centre coordination, and does not require a uniform tax rate in all the states.
Dual, differentiated GSTInstead, we should have a Central GST and a state GST—with the states free to have different rates on the latter so that we can preserve and enhance inter-state fiscal competition. This is because if state leaders cannot politically benefit from cutting taxes, then why will they forgo the political benefits of increased spending? State politicians would then present the Centre with the fait accompli of huge budget deficits. When this is replicated throughout the country, a uniform GST rate would have to be increased again and again, greatly harming the economy.
But some sceptics of tax competition say a “race to the bottom” could take place, with states drastically cutting spending to cut taxes. This makes as much sense as saying that a price war in the electronics market would destroy quality. Taxpayers, like consumers, operate on two variables—cost and quality. Tax competition makes state spending more efficient and does not necessarily decrease it: A state could choose to have great infrastructure and social insurance, and firms might be ready to pay higher taxes to locate there. Such policy experimentation in the states—the “laboratories of democracy”—is useful because the successful policies are then copied by other states.
How is this a logical argument ? GST may not be the only way to do so. It may not be perfect. So what ? It's the option we took. For someone who kept wishing to address the political side of the problem, you're simultaneously wishing away 15 years of political history across 4 different elected governments, painstakingly building up the effort to implement GST upto this point.ShauryaT wrote:Nothing against trying to achieve free movement of goods in the country, GST is not the only way to do so. The following article is dated and some specifics may have changed but this GST idea is now 10 years old but the gist of the message still applies.
"Old school views are; never to dabble much in bonds when a currency is under turmoil. Stay away until the currency stabilises, otherwise you will burn your fingers," said Anoop Verma, vice president, fixed income at DCB Bank.
The government, however, has less room to delay the launch of a new issue.
To meet its fiscal deficit target, the government aims to raise a gross Rs 6 lakh crore ($93.84 billion) in bond sales in the fiscal year ending in March 2016.
"The uptick in debt yields will impact government borrowing costs," said Kumar Rachapudi, a fixed income strategist with ANZ Bank in Singapore. "If the fiscal deficit was lower, then supply would not have been an issue."
Indirect tax collections jumped 46.2% in AprilIndia’s inflation eased and factory output slowed, boosting the odds that central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan will cut interest rates for a third time this year.
Consumer prices rose 4.87 percent in April from a year earlier after a revised 5.25 percent increase in March, the Statistics Ministry said in a statement in New Delhi Tuesday. The median of 36 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists had predicted a 4.9 percent gain. Industrial production grew 2.1 percent compared with an estimated 3 percent rise.
Rajan refrained from lowering borrowing costs at a scheduled review last month and said the next move would depend on data showing the balance of risks to inflation. A rebound in oil prices and a drop in the rupee had raised concern about whether the Reserve Bank of India will meet its target of keeping price pressures within 6 percent.
“This allays some of the concerns that had built up around the space for further monetary easing,” said Jyotinder Kaur, an economist at HDFC Bank Ltd. in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. She predicts Rajan will cut the benchmark repurchase rate by a quarter percentage point when he reviews policy on June 2.
The rupee extended losses overseas soon after the data, falling as low as 64.77 per dollar. Local markets had shut before the release. India’s consumer food-price index rose 5.11 percent in April from a year earlier after March’s 5.17 percent increase, data showed on Tuesday.
Industrial survey fails to capture complete manufacturing data, as many as 70,000 cos not on listLed by over two-fold surge in excise duty collections, indirect tax revenue jumped 46.2 per cent to Rs 47,747 crore in April this year compared to the same month last year.
Indirect tax collections, that include revenue from excise duty, service tax and customs duty, were at Rs 32,661 crore in April 2014.
India to grow 7.5% in FY16, highest in G20: Moody’sIn what could raise more doubts about the country's income statistics, the National Statistical Commission (NSC) has discovered that data from a substantial number of manufacturing companies don't get captured in the annual survey of industries (ASI), which is used for computing gross domestic product.
As many as 70,000 manufacturing companies registered under the Companies Act have not been captured in the ASI, because these establishments aren't registered under the Factories Act. This accounted for close to 15% of the manufacturing sector GDP for 2011-12. The ASI tracks only the companies listed under the Factories Act. The discrepancy was discovered after the NSC, which audits statistical activities, compared the two lists. About half the companies which were registered under the Companies Act weren't on the ASI list, NSC Chairman Pronab Sen said. "Clearly, the registration process is faulty. We knew that the ASI had under-coverage which came out from economic census and the national sample surveys, but did not know that the situation was this dire," he said.
The finding will not have any major implications on GDP data now, because the government currently uses a larger database from the corporate affairs ministry for company numbers after the base year for GDP was recently revised to 2011-12. It now relies on the ASI only for data on partnership and proprietorship firms. However, the error will impact manufacturing data captured prior to the shift in the base year and also raise doubts over other data captured by the industry survey.
The ASI was previously the primary source of data for the manufacturing sector in GDP. Sen said the finding raised serious doubts on the quality of the ASI list. "It implies that the entire ASI list is faulty. There would be serious discrepancies in the number of proprietorship and partnership firms as well," he said.
The ASI covers units registered under the Factories Act. To register, these companies need 10 or more workers on any day of the previous year if the manufacturing is carried out using a power source of some kind. If no power is used, the minimum number of employees should be 20.
From the uncovered set, smaller units are found to be not registering under the Factories Act. "There must be a dialogue between the MCA and the chief inspector of factories," Sen said. "It is a serious administrative matter. They have to sort it out."
The NSC audit is aimed at ensuring quality and integrity of data. It evolves measures to improving public trust in official statistics.
On earlier occasions, doubts were raised over disconnect between the Index of Industrial Production and ASI numbers. ASI data come with a lag of two years and were regarded more reliable compared with the IIP. In fact, the government was also planning a similar exercise for services sector, called the annual survey of services.
With the revision in the base year, the Central Statistics Office has started using the MCA21 database of 5.2 lakh companies to compute manufacturing growth, in addition to using the annual survey of industries data.
This led to a sharp revision in manufacturing growth to 5.3% for 2013-14 from a 0.7% contraction estimated under the earlier series.
The share of manufacturing in the overall economy also went up to 17.3% in 2013-14 from 12.9% in the older series.
India growth story received an impetus today when rating agency Moody’s said it will grow at a strong pace of 7.5 per cent in 2015-16, the highest among G20 economies, helped by the reforms drive and lower oil prices.
“We forecast strong growth in India… at 7.5 per cent in 2015-16, the highest among the G20 economies. Lower oil prices will reinforce gradual growth-enhancing reforms to support robust economic activity over the forecast period,” Moody’s Investors Service said, in a report.
At a time of shifting global investment flows, India benefits from reduced external imbalances, it said.
“We expect a broadly balanced current account, for the first time in 10 years, thanks to lower energy import bill and restrictions in gold imports,” Moody’s said.
It said India would be a major beneficiary of softer oil prices among the G20 economies as the country is a major crude importer.
G20 is a group of 20 developing and industrialised economies, which accounts for 85 per cent of the world’s economic output.
Posting in full. Its time to give tough competition to Chinese Fire Works.An Advisory Committee constituted under Section 29B(2C) of the Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951 on de-reservation periodically evaluates products /items reserved for exclusive production by Micro and Small Enterprises. India has opened up its economy since 1991 through a forward looking Policy which led to de-licensing of items. Over the years list of items reserved for manufacture by MSE Sector has been reduced from over 800 to 20. The Advisory Committee in its meeting, held on 20.10.2014, noted that with the import liberalization, all remaining items are allowed for imports. Thus, there is no prima facie justification for continuation of reservation of manufacturing in the MSE Sector since such reservation may inhibit the possibilities based on technologies, economy of scale, etc. vis-à-vis the imported items.
On the recommendation of Advisory Committee, Government of India vide Notification S.O. 998 (E) dated 10.04.2015 have decided to deserve remaining 20 (Twenty) items presently reserved for exclusive manufacture by MSE Sector. Accordingly following items are de-reserved:-
(i)Pickles and Chutneys, (ii) Bread, (iii) Mustard Oil (except solvent extracted), (iv) Ground Nut Oil (except solvent extracted), (v) Wooden furniture and Fixtures, (vi) Exercise Books and Registers, (vii) Wax Candles, (viii) Laundry Soap, (ix) Safety Matches, (x) Fire works, (xi) Agarbatties, (xii) Glass Bangles, (xiii) Steel Almirah, (xiv) Rolling shutters, (xv) Steel chairs – all types, (xvi) Steel tables – all other types, (xvii) Steel Furniture – all other types, (xviii) Padlocks, (xix) Stainless steel utensils, (xx) Domestic utensils – Aluminium.
The above policy initiatives have been taken to encourage greater investment, including the existing MSME units, to incorporate better Technologies, Standard and Branch Building to enhance Competition in Indian and Global markets for these products.
Bloomberg TV India @BloombergTVInd 3h3 hours ago
Coal secretary @swarup58: India will need Rs. 1.5 bn tn coal by 2020 if economy grows at 8%.
Bloomberg TV India @BloombergTVInd 3h3 hours ago
Coal secretary @swarup58: Aims more than 500 mn tn output from non-coal India; Land acquisition holding up India's coal output targets.
?? Explain please? What is this reservation for MSME thing?kmkraoind wrote:De-Reservation of remaining 20 items reserved for Micro and Small Enterprises Sector
Posting in full. Its time to give tough competition to Chinese Fire Works.An Advisory Committee constituted under Section 29B(2C) of the Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951 on de-reservation periodically evaluates products /items reserved for exclusive production by Micro and Small Enterprises. India has opened up its economy since 1991 through a forward looking Policy which led to de-licensing of items. Over the years list of items reserved for manufacture by MSE Sector has been reduced from over 800 to 20. The Advisory Committee in its meeting, held on 20.10.2014, noted that with the import liberalization, all remaining items are allowed for imports. Thus, there is no prima facie justification for continuation of reservation of manufacturing in the MSE Sector since such reservation may inhibit the possibilities based on technologies, economy of scale, etc. vis-à-vis the imported items.
On the recommendation of Advisory Committee, Government of India vide Notification S.O. 998 (E) dated 10.04.2015 have decided to deserve remaining 20 (Twenty) items presently reserved for exclusive manufacture by MSE Sector. Accordingly following items are de-reserved:-
(i)Pickles and Chutneys, (ii) Bread, (iii) Mustard Oil (except solvent extracted), (iv) Ground Nut Oil (except solvent extracted), (v) Wooden furniture and Fixtures, (vi) Exercise Books and Registers, (vii) Wax Candles, (viii) Laundry Soap, (ix) Safety Matches, (x) Fire works, (xi) Agarbatties, (xii) Glass Bangles, (xiii) Steel Almirah, (xiv) Rolling shutters, (xv) Steel chairs – all types, (xvi) Steel tables – all other types, (xvii) Steel Furniture – all other types, (xviii) Padlocks, (xix) Stainless steel utensils, (xx) Domestic utensils – Aluminium.
The above policy initiatives have been taken to encourage greater investment, including the existing MSME units, to incorporate better Technologies, Standard and Branch Building to enhance Competition in Indian and Global markets for these products.
You're more or less correct. the MSME/SSI reservation was essentially perpetuating poverty because it didn't just reserve areas to small scale industries - it functionally ensured industries in those areas remained small and could never really grow into big entities. Low access to capital, stifling but supposedly worker friendly rules, all ensured that.kmkraoind wrote:During 2nd colonial times (i.e. Nehru dynasty periods), they prepared 2 lists and they barred big industries in one list, because the thinking is that, if any big industrialists venture into them, they will annihilate small and micro units, so they deserved a huge industries for MSME sector.
The Congress never want to lift that ban, even though we have started importing those reserved items from China where humungous factories manufactured them. Now, the NDA govt has unreserved all (now they are just 20 items) items from MSME reservation.
I hope real economic gurus might explain it better.
Singha wrote:heard on radio interview today from mohandas pai. more indication that blr has leap frogged chennai
- 3rd highest GDP after delhi and mumbai though almost no PSU except HAL books its revenues here, they are all HQ'ed in mumbai and delhi
- 4th biggest lending market
- highest per capita income (I thought the conventional claim was chandigarh but maybe it changed)
- 12L people in IT among a working pop of 40L in official sector (largest itvity workforce among world cities)
- $45b itvity revenues booked in itivity alone...
- highest number of workforce phds among any city in yindia
- largest number of people in semicon design among world cities
- 400 of the fortune500 have ops here
- some 5000 automobile engineers and 2000 aerospace
then he talked about his conversations with politicians incl the CM
- BBMP is broke - it has 8000cr debt and 3000cr of unpaid bills
- BBMP has lot of corruption
- all political parties have their snout in the feeding trough here
- other than splitting it up, he was not clear what the CM has in mind to clean the mess
--
to add to that , I would say most of the ITI diploma trained manufacturing workers in the industrial estates around the town tend to be from the 4 southern states only, almost none from the vast mass of people in UP, Bihar and eastern states. these states are exporting manpower to the south and west in security guards, retail assistants, cooking only. even in smaller places like kerala and goa. unless they pull socks up , train people for manufacturing and higher skill trades...they would not even be able to make an entry in the basic stuff like clothes, shoes, plastics that Bangladesh and Vietnam are dominating now.
Growth projections for the current year range from 7-8.5%:The wholesale price index (WPI) fell to a new low of 2.65 per cent for the month of April, 2015, after declining to 2.33 per cent in the previous month, government data showed on Thursday. This is the sixth straight decline in wholesale prices, a clear indication that inflationary pressures in the economy remain muted.
In primary articles, the index food articles rose by 5.73 per cent, as opposed to 6.31 per cent in March and 8.74 per cent in the previous year. While food inflation may be edging downwards, given the uncertainty over the monsoons, it is difficult to estimate with certainty the direction of food prices going forward.
Indian economy is likely to clock 8.1 per cent growth in the current financial year, spurred by strong consumer spending amid low inflation, infrastructure projects and government's reform measures, says a UN report.
Investment is also expected to rebound, although unevenly, given the still low capacity-utilisation rate at about 70 per cent, it said.
"Growth is forecast to accelerate to 8.1 per cent in 2015 and 8.2 per cent in 2016, benefiting from the acceleration of infrastructure projects, strong consumer spending due to lower inflation and monetary easing and gradual improvements in market sentiments," said the UN ESCAP report titled, 'Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2015.
India to invest $ 25 billion to reach 1 billion tonne of coal outputThe country's merchandise exports contracted 13.96 percent in April, for the fifth straight month, dragged down by a slump in global demand, government data showed on Friday.
Trade deficit narrowed to $10.99 billion in April helped by a 42 percent year-on-year fall in oil imports, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed.
Imports fell 7.48 percent from a year earlier to $33.05 billion last month, while exports stood at $22.05 billion, the data showed.
In its endeavor to reduce dependency on imported coal, Coal India Limited (CIL) will invest around $ 20-25 billion in the next five years in order to achieve an output of 1 billion tonnes by 2019-20.
According to Piyush Goyal, minister of state for Coal, Power and Renewable Energy this will help the country to cut down import of coal substantially. "The level at which are our production is increasing, the country will be able to produce enough coal so as to substitute imports of thermal coal in next two- two and half years. But we will continue to import high grade coking coal, mainly used for steel production," Goyal said.
CIL recorded an output of 494.23 million tones in 2014-15 which was 3% lower than the production target of 507 million tones. But it was an increase of 32 million tones than 462.53 million tones produced by the company in FY 2013-14. "We have achieved a production growth of 32 million tonne in 2014-2015, against a production growth of 31 million tonne in a cumulative 4 years period between 2011 and 2014 and our growth has been 11.1 percent in 43 days of the current year," the minister said.
Goyal, said that the money will be invested in improving technology and upgrading existing facilities in coal mines. A part of the investment will be deployed for equity funding in infrastructure projects being developed for coal evacuation. "We have already identified the big picture and now we have done mine by mine planning to reach the target of 1 billion tonne by 2019-20," hel said. Analysts had earlier expressed their reservation over the ambitious target set by CIL saying that the infrastructure shortage of extracting coal is a huge impediment in achieving the target.
Jokes sometimes have a way of capturing truth more effectively than analysis. The measure of the present government is captured by this one going around: What is the difference between the UPA and the NDA? In the UPA we had a government and no prime minister; in the NDA we have a prime minister and no government. This has an element of cruel exaggeration. But it highlights the central tension of one year of Narendra Modi’s government.