THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- September 27, 2016- Topic 1
Within a fortnight of President Pranab
Mukherjee signing off on the 122nd Constitution
Amendment Bill to introduce the
Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, work on the next steps has begun. The GST
Council, led by the Union Finance Minister and with representatives from all
States, had its first meeting on September 22-23, flagging off the process of
determining the nitty-gritty of the new indirect tax system and resolving
differences on crucial first-principle issues. Time is of the essence, as just
six months remain for the April 1, 2017 deadline that the Centre has set for
ringing in the GST. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has admitted that the
deadline is ‘challenging’, but going by the outcomes of the first meeting of
the Council, it is clearly doable. Apart from agreeing on the rules and
timetable for its meetings, the Council reached a consensus on the threshold
turnover for a business to be covered by the GST, Rs.20 lakh, which ensures
that the new tax will not be a compliance burden for small retailers and
traders. It has also agreed on the draft compensation formula for States’
revenue losses and accepted industry’s rationale to subsume myriad cess levies
in the GST.
An important signal at this juncture is
the Centre’s decision to let go of the Central Board of Excise and Customs’s
proposal to create dual control over the assessment of businesses with an
annual turnover of up to Rs.1.5 crore and give States that power. Experts
reckon that a large number of assessees fall below this threshold. By conceding
ground on this contentious issue, the Finance Minister has sent a welcome
message of give-and-take. This is important given the need to resolve more
tangled Centre-State tax issues on the Council’s agenda quickly, if the model
laws for Central, State and integrated GST are to be ready for Parliament’s
winter session. It is evident that all States participated with an open mind,
including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, irrespective of their ratification
strategies for the Constitution amendments in their respective Assemblies. All
decisions were arrived at by consensus. The Centre and the States appear to be
informed by the roll-out experience of the Value-Added Tax regime, and the
States want to be on the same page through discussions and support one another
rather than get divided along regional or party lines. This bodes well for the
GST, where every decision has to be taken by the Council based on a majority
view: the States have two-thirds voting power and the Centre has one-third. It
is to be hoped that this accommodative spirit of cooperative federalism
prevails.
Vocabulary
Fortnight: a period of two weeks.
Example: In the last seven years at home there were regular fortnights in hospital:
periodic detention, we called it.
Nitty-Gritty: the most important aspects or practical details of a subject or situation.
Example: Let's get down to the nitty-gritty of finding a job
Synonyms: basics, essentials, fundamentals, substance, quintessence, heart
of the matter
Doable: within one's powers; feasible.
Example: None of the jobs were fun, but they were doable
Rationale: a set of reasons or a logical basis for a course of action or a particular
belief.
Example: He explained the rationale behind the change
Synonyms: reason(s), reasoning, thinking, logic, grounds, sense, principle
Myriad: countless or extremely great in number.
Example: The myriad lights of the city
Synonyms: innumerable, countless, infinite, numberless, untold
Reckon: establish by counting or calculation; calculate.
Example: His debts were reckoned at $300,000
Synonyms: calculate, compute, peg, work out, put a figure
on, figure
Tangled: twist together into a confused mass.
Example: The broom somehow got tangled up in my long skirt
Synonyms: knotted, knotty, raveled, entangled, snarled (up), twisted
Consensus: general agreement.
Example: A consensus of opinion among judges
Synonyms: agreement, harmony, concurrence, accord, unity, unanimity
Bodes: be an omen of a particular outcome.
Example: Their argument did not bode well for the future
Synonyms: augur, portend, herald, be a sign of, warn of, foreshadow
Accommodative: involving mutual assistance in working toward a common goal.
Example: Every member has clearly defined tasks in a cooperative enterprise
Synonyms: collaborative, collective, combined, common, joint