CIVIL SERVICE MAINS–2016–GENERAL STUDIES Question Paper -IV and Analysis
The questions we asked in our MAINS test series :-
- How ethics contributes to social and human well being ;-
- This can be answered by the material provided by us in UTM13 test, where it discusses what use is ethics ?
- Ethics can provide a moral map
- Ethics can pinpoint a disagreement
- Ethics doesn’t give right answers always
- Ethics as source of group strength
- What is right or wrong and what are the sources of right and wrong (metaethics)
- This can be answered by the material provided by us in UTM13 test, where it discusses what use is ethics ?
- Impartiality and Non-partisanship as foundational values of civil service
- We did not ask this question directly however asked this :-
- According to you, what are the most five foundational values of civil service. Elaborate on any two of these with example.
- Governance , Good Governance and Ethical governance:-
- Question asked by us in test series :-
- What do you understand by ethical governance? How good governance is related to ethical governance.
- Mahatma Gandhi’s seven sins ( Did not cover as part of test series)
- John Rawls’s concept of Social Justice (Did not cover as part of test series)
- Public service code according to 2nd ARC :-
- Given as part of the material for UTM13
- Corruption was asked in our test series. Kautilya’s view is discussed in 3 of our editorials :-(Fodder can be found to answer this question)
- Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
- Question asked in test series :-
- It seems that our society still believes “cleanliness” is the responsibility of the state only. What can you do on personal and community level to bring about social and attitudinal change to inculcate value of cleanliness?
- Question asked in test series :-
- Law and ethics as tools to control human conduct and How they differ.
- Questions asked in test series :-
- Explain how Law determines Ethics with example.
- “In law, a man is guilty when he violates rights of another. In ethics, he is guilty if he thinks of doing so”.(That’s the difference part)
- Family’s contribution to attitude building
- Question asked in test series :-
- The process of attitude building starts in the family. With suitable example, explain how your family helped you to build certain positive attitudes and how these attitudes helped you in real life?
- Anger management
- Did not ask specific to anger but a general question was given in test series :-
- What do you understand by Emotional Intelligence? According to you, what are the necessary attributes, an emotionally intelligent administrator should possess? – one of the key attribute of a good civil servant is anger management.
- Did not ask specific to anger but a general question was given in test series :-
- Max Weber and Personal morality vs State morality
- We have asked the difference between personal morality and State morality in test series.
- Also there is an editorial on it – Editorials – Role of Integrity in Public Life !!!
Approach for Case Studies will follow.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.