Current Affairs For Bank, IBPS Exams

06 December 2013

WTO trade deal

• Ministers from nearly 160 member countries of the World Trade Organisation entered a final day of negotiations with officials sounding optimistic over chances of salvaging a deal that would save the trade body from sliding into irrelevance.

• India has insisted it would not compromise on a policy of subsidising food for hundreds of millions of poor, putting it at odds with the United States and other developed countries.

• It is 12 years since the WTO launched the Doha Round, but the negotiations have yet to yield any concrete results. Diplomats have warned that failure in Bali would wreck the WTO's credibility as developed nations turn towards regional and bilateral trade arrangements.

• A Bali trade deal, which is far less ambitious than the Doha Round had aimed for up until two years ago, would open the way to much wider trade reforms and enable the body to modernise its rules for the internet era.
  Another part of the deal – and the one proving to be the most contentious – is focused on agriculture. Members seem largely in agreement over reducing export subsidies and opening borders to the least developed countries. The main obstacle to a deal is food subsidy policy.

• India will next year fully implement a welfare programme to provide cheap food to 800 million people that it fears will contravene WTO rules curbing farm subsidies to 10% of production.

• The programme, which relies on large-scale stockpiling and purchases at minimum prices, is a central plank of the government's bid to win a third term in office next year.

• A proposal led by the US offered to waive the 10% rule until 2017. But India has rejected it, demanding the exemptions continue indefinitely until a solution is found.

• If talks were to fail, the WTO may see its role eroded by regional trade pacts now being negotiated, such as the US-led 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and a US-EU tie-up known as the TTP.

Direct tax collections up 13 per cent

• Gross collections from direct taxes, that include personal income tax, corporate taxes and wealth tax, rose by 13.18 per cent to Rs.3.69 lakh crore in the April-November period of this fiscal, government data showed .

• According to the data released by the Finance Ministry here, gross collections from personal income tax jumped by 19.60 per cent to Rs.1.40 lakh crore in the first eight months of the current financial year from Rs.1.17 lakh crore in the corresponding period of last year.

• Gross collections from corporate taxes rose to Rs.2.25 lakh crore during the period under review from Rs.2.05 lakh crore recorded in the corresponding period last year, registering a year-on-year increase of 9.66 per cent.

• Sluggish economic growth has negatively impacted the collections from corporate taxes.

• Net direct tax collections were recorded at Rs.3.10 lakh crore in April-November period of current year as compared to Rs.2.71 lakh crore in the same period last year, registering an increase of 14.60 per cent.

• The difference in gross and net collections is due to tax refunds.

• Collection of Securities Transaction Tax (STT) increased by 4.73 per cent to Rs.3,053 crore, and wealth tax posted a growth of 13.38 per cent to stand at Rs.712 crore during the period under review.

Ministry to move Cabinet note on surplus coal

• The Coal Ministry will move a Cabinet note shortly to finally put in place a policy on disposing surplus coal.

• A three-member panel, headed by Planning Commission member B.K. Chaturvedi, has held the view that captive coal mining players should not be allowed to transfer surplus coal outside the end-use sector which they had been allocated for, and any surplus coal with them should be transferred to either the nearest Coal India Ltd. (CIL) subsidiary or other firms in the same sector facing shortage of coal in linkage coal from CIL.

• The Power Ministry had conveyed to the committee as well as the Planning Commission that any coal banking system should not lead to profiteering among coal block holders. The government has allocated a total of 218 captive blocks to companies between 1993 and 2011.

• Of these, 47 blocks have been de-allocated. Captive coal-mining companies were expected to produce 100 tonnes by the end of the last five-year Plan period in March 2012.

• There is also a view that the new policy will have to be notified after approval by the Cabinet through an amendment to the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act, 1973, and the existing 170-odd letters of allocation.

• The coal banking proposal will allow companies to transfer coal to another company, where the end-use project has been commissioned before the coal block, and receive the coal at a later stage.

India to host 2017 Under-17 FIFA World Cup

• India will host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2017. It was decided at the FIFA executive committee meeting held on December 4 and 5 in Brazil.
• India won the hosting rights ahead of Ireland, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and 2010 FIFA World Cup hosts South Africa.
• Legendary Indian footballers were ecstatic about the news. It is good for the future and dea big achievement.

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