Dear Aspirants,
Thank You for your overwhelming response to the FEEDBACK for PRELIMS 2017 PROGRAM.
If you are yet to give feedback to the program , kindly do it so –Click Here
We have noted down your concerns and here is our answer for them :-
The most emerging concern was on how to cover Daily Current Affairs :-
In this regard, it is important to note that there is a significant shift as listed below :-
- The question in PRELIMS 2016 related to current affairs were not solely based on THEHINDU, the reach has been diversified .Many questions were asked from other source of news such as – Times of India, Business Standard ,Economic Times, Live mint and few others.
- What it implies is , one can not afford to read only THEHINDU and rest assured of clearing PRELIMS in 2017.The reading list is expanded immensely.
- However, at the same time it is not humanely possible to read all these newspapers on a day to day basis.This calls for smart management of current affairs.
- In regard to this ,we have diversified our base.Picking the relevant from the sea of irrelevant has become a herculean task.
- However, we have few good technologies at our disposal and many resources to help us through.In short what we can do can not be done by a single individual alone .This calls for collaborative approach.
- Here is our approach to provide a full-proof current affair coverage :-
- We go through each paper of importance, also our subscription has been expanded which also includes many other magazines of importance such as – The Economist,Geography and You, Down to earth etc.
- What we are doing is to go through all magazines and newspapers on a day-today basis .We assign it to different members of our core group , then discuss all the importance news, then publish after editorial oversight.
- For the aforementioned magazines , we will publish only the relevant ones , that will help you to enrich your content in the examination.
- Through our Program , we will be ensuring at least 30% of current affairs coverage in each paper, along with a complete set on current affairs.
Another important issue that emerged is that :-Many deserving students have committed “Silly mistakes” to tune of above 6 questions, which costed them dearly.
With regards to this, our PRELIMS 2016 tests series was created in mind keeping this issues in mind and many have benefited from it.Prelims 2017 test series will be better in this regards, we can assures you on that.
Most of the time silly mistakes are committed due to the fact that – many think “Can UPSC ask such easy questions ?”, then when one think over it too much , it results in Silly mistake.We will prepare you for this in our test series.
Few more concerns have been noted down , and few were personal in nature and you would have got a mail from with regards to this.
Feel free to contact us , in case of any queries:-Click Here
The dates of the Program Launch will be announced soon.Meanwhile write to us with your feedback.
Thank You
UPSCTREE Team
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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.