Current affairs : November 29, 2016 for all competitive exams
Income-Tax Amendment Bill tabled in LS
The Government has sought to bring to tax all unaccounted money that was
flowing into the banking system following the demonetisation announcement on
November 8. In this regard, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has introduced a Bill
in Lok Sabha.
- The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Bill, 2016
proposes to amend Section 115BBE of the Income Tax Act to provide for a
punitive tax, surcharge and penalty on unexplained credit, investment,
cash and other assets.
- Against current provision of 30% flat tax rate plus
surcharge and cess, a steep 60% tax will be levied on unaccounted income
together with 25% surcharge of tax (15% of such income). So total
incidence of tax will be 75% with no expense, deductions or set-off
allowed.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016’ (PMGKY):
An alternative Scheme namely, ‘Taxation and Investment Regime for Pradhan
Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, 2016’ (PMGKY) has been proposed in the Bill.
- Under this, besides 50% tax, surcharge and penalty,
a quarter of the declared income will be to be deposited in interest free
deposit scheme for four years.
- The scheme enables people with undisclosed income to
come clean. However, they would have to fork out a tax of 30% and penalty
of 10%. A surcharge in the form of cess of 33% will have to be paid on the
tax.
CMs panel to study demonetization effect:
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has been nominated by
the Central Government to head the sub-committee of Chief Ministers of five
States constituted to study the situation arising out of the demonetization of
big notes.
- The committee would study various aspects after
demonetization and how it has affected different sections of the people.
India’s first digital village:
Akodara has earned the tag of India’s first digital village that uses a
cashless system for payments of goods and services.
- Akodara is a tiny village around 90 km away from Ahmedabad, located in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat.
Goa to become India’s first
cashless state
The Indian state of Goa
prepares itself to become the first state to operate cashless in the country
from 31 December 2016.
- This announcement was made by Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar, who is also the former Chief Minister of the state,
during a rally at Sankhali on 25 November 2016.
- The plan includes making even small vendors selling perishable goods accustomed to mobile payment
Modern RFID Access Control System Introduced at Paradip
Port
Paradip Port has introduced the modern Radio-frequency identification (RFID) Access Control System
for controlling and tracking the entry and exit of vehicular as well as
human traffic into and out of its prohibited area. The implementation of the
system was done as per the directives of the Ministry of Shipping.
- Paradip Port is the first among all Major Ports to
have successfully implemented the RFID Access Control System adding yet
another distinction to its string of achievements.
50 years of establishment of UNCITRAL
India is hosting the golden jubilee celebrations of United Nations
Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).
- The event is being hosted by the UNCITRAL National
Coordination Committee India (UNCCI) and the UNCITRAL Regional Centre for
Asia and the Pacific, with the support of the Permanent Court of
Arbitration.
- UNCITRAL was established by the UN General Assembly
in 1966 to promote the progressive harmonisation and unification of
international trade law.
Hand-held card
machines to be cheaper
The government on Monday
removed excise duty on goods for manufacturing POS (Point of Sale) machines
that are in great demand as merchants are being compelled to use them in the
wake of the currency crisis.
- POS machines will be exempted from 12.5 per cent
excise duty and 4 per cent SAD (Special Additional Duty) till March 31,
2017.
- The POS machines are hand-held devices, which are being increasingly used by merchants to accept payments for goods sold through credit and debit cards.
‘Bitcoin adoption in India sees surge’
Unocoin, an Indian bitcoin start-up, has unveiled a new app for Apple’s
mobile operating system iOS and Google’s Android platform. According to the
firm, the app will allow consumers to buy, sell, send, receive and store
bitcoins, all in one place, from any remote device.
- Unocoin said the implementation is timely because bitcoin adoption is rapidly ascending in India, coupled with the government’s decision to demonetise Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes.
Lt Gen AK Bhat appointed new
DGMO
Lt-General A K Bhatt was on
28 November 2016 appointed as the Director-General of Military Operations
(DGMO).
- Lt-Gen Bhatt will succeed Lt-General Ranbir Singh, who declared at a press briefing that Army Special Forces had conducted surgical strikes against terror launch pads in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on 29 September 2016.
Dictionary.com’s 2016 Word of
the Year Is Xenophobia
The website Dictionary.com
named the word 'Xenophobia' as the Word of the Year for 2016.
- According to Dictionary.com, there was a massive
surge in lookups for the word 'Xenophobia' that was larger than any of the
peaks seen in 2016.
- This rise in lookups was connected to attacks on
foreign workers and overall rising xenophobia in South Africa.
- The largest spike in Dictionary.com’s data for the word was in the month of June 2016 with a 938 per cent increase in lookups.
Argentina win their
first ever Davis cup
Argentina has won its maiden
Davis Cup title after defeating Croatia in the final.
In the final match,
Argentina’s Federico Delbonis defeated Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to give
Argentina its first title.
- As of 2016, the Argentina Davis Cup team has competed in the World Group since 2002 and reached the finals five times (1981, 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2016). iv. At present, Argentina is Number 1 on the Davis Cup ranking by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
