Note

News Wrap
AGD

30 km from Dehradun city, is the Charba-Langha road, a green industrial belt, on the western fringes of the Doon Valley, full of lush green khair and sheesham trees. In this area of sustainable development, there are over 50 micro, small and medium size enterprises. In April 2013, Hindusthan Coca Cola Beverage, the Indian arm of Coca Cola had signed an MoU with the Uttarakhand State Industrial Corporation for setting up a bottling plant on 60 acres of land, for Rs 600 crore. The Charba village panchayat has recently passed a resolution declaring that it would not allow the beverage MNC to go ahead with its plans, as the bottling plant would adversely affect the area’s environment. A large number of villagers have been organizing a series of protests, against Coca Cola’s entry to the village. The environmental degradation would cause a depletion of the water table. The state government’s plans of acquiring 520 bighas of land will lead to felling of innumerable trees. Notwithstanding higher employment and more business opportunities, the ground water has been polluted by the Coca Cola plants near Plachimada (Kerala) and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh).

Disrespect for Democratic Institutions
It is a settled law in the Vineet Narain case that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is not expected to share its status report, before placing its report in parliament. In one aspect of the coal block allocations, the CBI director should not have shared the report with the Union Law Minister, allowing for vetting and introducing changes in the report, while the agency was still investigating the case. The Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval was forced to resign after he accused Attorney General G Vahanvati of trying to influence the CBI probe, and making him a scapegoat in the controversy. The Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran maintains that the CBI director should not have shared the report with the minister. India’s Supreme Court has noted with dismay the political influence and interference on the investigation process. The heart of the report on CBI’s probe into allegations of irregularities in the allocation of local blocks, was changed on the suggestion of government officials. Mr Ashwani Kumar, the then Union Law and Justice Minister, has since resigned.

Chit Fund Collections
Not less than 900 Chit Fund companies operating in West Bengal, raised nearly Rs 90,000 crore, over a period of time. Since July 2011, the Income Tax Department despatched its official findings through instalment reports to the state government of West Bengal and other central agencies. Both the state and central government, along with central agencies like Securities Exchange Bureau of India (SEBI) and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) failed to take any action. The Saradha Group, which has gone bust since March 2013, has not filed IT returns for the last four years. When served IT notices, the Saradha Group paid provisional taxes. The company filed three different balance sheets to three agencies, including the Registrar of Companies, the Income Tax Department, and the concerned banks. Under the Companies Act it was a criminal offence. The assets base of the companies was not more than 15% of the total amount of money raised from people, which jeopardizes the security of the deposits.

Migrants in Britain
The United Kingdom benefit system is relatively friendly to migrants from within the European Union. The migrants from outside the EU, generally have to pass a ‘no recourse to public funds’ test; and skilled workers and foreign students are unlikely to end up on benefits. Once ‘habitually resident’ the migrants from within the EU have to be treated similarly to UK citizens. The UK benefit system, for those of working age, is mostly means tested, based on income and residence, and not contributions. The UK health system is generally free at the point of use for all citizens. The combination of child benefit and child tax credits is comparatively more generous. France has higher unemployment benefits, for most people, while contribution conditions are weaker. Some migrants, from the relatively new member states of the EU, do better in the UK than at home. Migrants from the new EU member states, paid, in via taxes, about 30% more than they cost public services. They were far less likely to claim benefits and tax credits, and to live in social housing. The employment rates for EU citizens, especially from new member states, are considerably higher than for the UK born. Of the roughly 1.8 million people from else-where in the EU of working age, about 90,000 or about 5% are claiming on ‘out of work benefit’. This compares with about 13% for British natives. Migrants from outside the EU are much less likely to claim benefits than natives. On other services, migrants imposed less than proportionate costs on the health and education systems. Migrants are likely to be young and healthy, and health spending goes overwhelmingly on the old and sick. The British fiscal position would be even worse without migration, and public services even more stretched for cash. Conservative MP Mr Dominic Raab and the Labour MP Mr Grank Field advocate a return to the ‘contributory principle’, where benefits would be much more closely related to national insurance contributions.

Real Estates in Cuba

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 48, June 9-15, 2013

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