Shri Piyush Goyal Launches Ujala Scheme in Goa and Vidyut Pravah & Urja Mobile App:-
UJALA Scheme:-
Under India’s commitment to achieving 30-35% reduced carbon emissions, the country has recognized energy efficiency as a key mitigation strategy. Therefore, the government is committed to executing schemes like UJALA.
State governments are voluntarily adopting this scheme and the scheme is already present in over 13 states.
EESL would be starting distribution in three more states within a month.The progress of ongoing LED distribution process can be tracked on http://www.delp.in/
The UJALA scheme has played a significant role in creating awareness about energy efficient lighting. In 2014-15, the total number of LED bulbs that were distributed was mere 30 lakhs. The number of LED bulbs distributed in 2015-16 has crossed 15 crore, where 9 crore LED bulbs were distributed under UJALA and the remaining were contributed by the industry. For this year, the Government of India is confident of distributing an additional 20 crore LED bulbs. Sustained efforts under UJALA, coupled with industry support, will help the government achieve its objective of replacing 77 crore inefficient bulbs by March 2019.
Efficient domestic lighting is one of the largest contributors to energy savings globally and the distribution of 10 crore LED bulbs in India has led to savings of over 1,298 crore kWh annually. This number has also helped the country avoid capacity of about 2,600 MW. Most importantly, the country has benefitted from reduction of CO2 emission by over 1 crore tonnes annually. The scheme is executed by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under Ministry of Power.
LED bulbs consume half the energy as that of CFLs and one tenth as that of incandescent bulbs.
UJALA is the largest non-subsidised LED programme in the world. The programme has led to significant savings to the consumers who are using these bulbs.
National savings under UJALA scheme:
Estimated Annual energy savings 1,298 crore kWh annually
Estimated reduction of peak load 2,600 MW
Estimated Annual cost reduction of bills of consumers INR 5,195 crore annually
Annual estimated greenhouse gas emission reductions 1 crore tonnes of CO2 annually
For enjoying the benefits of the scheme the consumer just needs to visit the UJALA dashboard www.delp.in to locate the closest distribution kiosk to their place. The UJALA scheme has now become a revolution and each person counts. Energy savings achieved from switching to LED bulbs is helping light up a home somewhere in the country.
National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN):-
Details:-
- It is a project to provide broadband connectivity to 250,000 Gram panchayats of India at a cost of Rs.20,000 crore.
- The project provides internet access using existing optical fiber and extending it to the Gram panchayats. Connectivity gap between Gram Panchayats and Blocks will be filled.
- The project was intended to enable the government of India to provide e-services and e-applications nationally.
- A special purpose vehicle Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) was created as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Companies Act of 1956 for the execution of the project.
- The project will be funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) and was estimated to be completed in 2 years.
- The project envisaged signing a tripartite MoU for free Right of Way (RoW) among the Union Government, State Government and Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL).
- All the Service Providers like Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), ISPs, Cable TV operators etc. will be given non-discriminatory access to the National Optic Fibre Network and can launch various services in rural areas. Various categories of applications like e-health, e-education and e-governance etc. can also be provided by these operators.
Govt. clears civil aviation policy, makes flying cheaper
The Union Cabinet has cleared the Civil Aviation Policy in order to boost the domestic aviation sector and provide passenger-friendly fares.
This new policy aims at providing various benefits to domestic airline passengers.
In a boost for domestic carriers, the government also amended what is called the 5/20 rule, which allowed only airlines that had operated for five years and had 20 aircraft in their fleets to fly internationally.
Objectives:-
- India to become 3rd largest civil aviation market by 2022 from 9th.
- Domestic ticketing to grow from 8 crore in 2015 to 30 crore by 2022.
- Airports having scheduled commercial flights to increase from 77 in 2016 to 127 by 2019.
- Cargo volumes to increase by 4 times to 10 million tonnes by 2027.
- Enhancing ease of doing business through deregulation, simplified procedures and e-governance.
- Promoting ‘Make In India’ in Civil Aviation Sector.
- Ensuring availability of quality certified 3.3 lakh skilled personnel by 2025.
Details of the policy:-
- Capping of fare: Rs 1,200 for 30 minutes and Rs 2,500 for hour-long flights.
- A single window for all aviation related transactions, complaints, etc.
- 5/20 rule scrapped. Under the new rules, airlines must still have 20 planes before they can fly internationally, but no longer need to have operated for five years.
- Start-up airlines can now fly abroad after operating at least 20 planes or 20 per cent of their total flying capacity, whichever is higher, on domestic routes.
- 2% levy on all air tickets to fund regional connectivity scheme and providing viability gap funding for airlines to encourage operations on regional routes.
- Restoration of air strips at a maximum cost of Rs 50 crore through Airports Authority of India (AAI).
- India will have an open-sky policy for countries beyond the 5,000-km radius from Delhi on a reciprocal basis. This means that airlines from European or Saarc countries will have unlimited access, in terms of number of flights and seats, to Indian airports, leading to increased flight frequencies with these countries.
- Permission for Indian carriers to get into code-sharing agreement with foreign carriers for any destination within India.
- More focus on ease-of-doing business as government plans to liberalise regime of regional flights.
- The government will look to develop about 350 dilapidated or underused airstrips across India into “no frills airports“.
- Four heli-hubs to be developed. Helicopter Emergency Medical Services to be facilitated
- Development of greenfield and brownfield airports by State government, private sector or in PPP mode to be encouraged.
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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.