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Open Forum
Pay Panel Gains:CUT TAXES TO BENEFIT EMPLOYEES, by Shivaji Sarkar,11 September 2008 |
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Economic Highlights
New Delhi, 11 September 2008
Pay Panel Gains
CUT TAXES TO BENEFIT EMPLOYEES
By Shivaji Sarkar
Government employees are upbeat over the Sixth Pay Commission
report, little realizing that more than them it is the Government which is the
main beneficiary. Of the Rs 16,000-crore benefit that the panel is supposed to
give over Rs 5,300 crore would go back to the Government by way of income-tax
at 33 per cent alone. In fact, some employees would now be subjected to an
additional tax as their salaries would touch the Rs 10-lakh per annum mark.
In its latest report, the Reserve Bank of India has come
up with the desired suggestion of reducing the income-tax rate and raising
exemption limits, for increasing the disposable income and ease inflationary
pressure. The high inflation rate, around 13 per cent on wholesale price index
(more on the basis of consumer price index) has already eroded substantial part
of the pay panel benefit. The taxes would eat up the rest.
It is well-known that wage revision is undertaken primarily to
neutralise the effect of price rise. One, it is dearness allowance component
which takes care of it marginally. Two, it keeps the market going at an even
pace. For with higher wages one is expected to increase purchases and help
other sectors of the market.
It is no secret that the market is highly depressed owing to
high inflationary pressure. Industrial growth too has slid. “There are also
some downside risks to the industrial growth momentum during 2008-09”, admits
the RBI. Growth in other sectors too has fallen including infrastructure, power
and the core sector. Thus raising, what RBI says are “apprehensions regarding
sustainability of industrial and manufacturing growth”.
Clearly, the central bank is concerned that inflation has
eroded the disposable income of the middle-class, supposedly the “engine” for
overall growth. It has, in no uncertain terms, expressed concern that the Government
has not taken any step to rectify this and is circumspect on the benefit to the
market of the so-called ‘higher wages’ of Central Government employees.
Moreover, the RBI is wary that as the salaried class is in a tight spot, it may
default on repayment of EMIs and pose a risk to the banking system.
In the face of the above, the RBI has thus vociferously
suggested “adjustment” – the bank’s euphemism for reduction – in the income tax
and excise duty for increasing the disposable income of the middle-class. “It
may have a possible impact on consumption demand for industrial goods,” is the RBI’s
guess.
In all fairness, higher salaries were expected to surge
other economic activities. But with the government policy eating into the kitty
itself, that opportunity is lost. Therefore, it is time the Government has a
re-look at its tax policy. The taxes, be it corporate or personal income-tax,
remain at a very high level. Over the years, big time industrialists--Rahul
Bajaj, Arun Bharat Ram or Sanjiv Goenka, Nusli Wadia, or Ajay Piramal-- have expressed
concern over the high tax regime. There is unanimity that high taxes only lead
to avoidance and evasion. And yet our Government has unfortunately not tied up
the taxes with its liberalisation policy.
Moreover, often taxes are unproductive and unimaginative.
The answer lies in lowering the taxes and abolishing the personal income tax,
which unfortunately has come to be known as the “impoverishing tax”. The Kelkar
committee had estimated that 48 per cent of the direct tax collected goes into
tax administration! It is certainly one of the most expensive systems of
realisation of resources. Any corporate would simply go bust at this kind of a
cost.
Let’s study the scenario. Today, there are more I-T
commissioners and naturally the administration costs have gone up. In addition,
the income-tax department has started spending on decorative and unrelated activities.
As such, the Government not only needs to review the size of the department but
also prune it. This apart, extra staff in a department means not so clean
operations, as some instances have shown.
Many a times the large official force ends up causing harassment
to the public simply because it is under pressure to justify its existence. This
again adds up to the cost. Then there are the subsequent litigation and appeal
processes, which too are a burden on the economy, other than causing loss to
productive man hours. The cumbersome I-T rules only make the process more
difficult. A Mahabharata of rules are eventually added every yea and each has
several interpretations.
In the past, the Government has had the experience of overall
higher tax accrual following tax rates being moderated from 97 per cent to 33
per cent. This meant an erosion of over one-third income in direct tax. And,
there are umpteen cases of indirect taxes, which rob an average Indian of
almost another 40 per cent of his/her income.
Thus, it is crystal clear: tax rates need to be cut. Finance
Minister P Chidambaram must examine the pros and cons of a high tax regime carefully,
so that all the money that is being generated is gainfully utilized and not
burnt up. The Government should, in fact bring it down to the level of five per
cent for an income up to Rs 5 lakh a year and beyond that to a maximum level of
10 per cent. Even the corporate incomes should not be taxed at more than 15 per
cent.
Let’s face the fact that if the taxes were low, people would
voluntarily prefer to pay rather than avoid these. At the same time, the Government’s
coffers would get bulkier as more and more people would be integrated with the
system. As of now most taxpayers are out of it and the taxmen are well
aware.
What is being suggested is no revolutionary step. It only
makes the tax system more imaginative, less exploitative and interwoven with
market realities. At the end, an affordable tax regime would reduce the cost of
tax policing, boost the market and bury inflation. –INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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Acquisition of Land:Whose Interest Does it Serve?, by By Dhurjati Mukherjee,16 September 2008 |
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Events & Issues
New Delhi, 16 September 2008
Acquisition of Land
Whose Interest Does it Serve?
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
The demand for land has been
increasing with industrial projects and urbanization growing at a very fast
pace. Many States have witnessed violent clashes over land acquisition and the recent-most
case being that of Singur, in West Bengal. There
have been protests in Mumbai and Pune as land was acquired at prices much below
market rate for a 1,000 hectare multi-product special economic zone (SEZ) to be
set up by Videocon.
Farmers’ struggles against SEZs have
come to the fore also in Raigad, Rajuranagar, Karla and Aurangabad
in Maharashtra and many other States. In fact,
from Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa to the Western Ghats, from Punjab to Karnataka
and West Bengal, huge industrial projects are
fighting local resentment, bureaucratic bungling and political brinkmanship.
The States are desperate to carry
forward the industrialization process and are vying with each other to make
available the best possible land at cheap rates to corporate houses to attract
them. Even fertile land is being acquired for the purpose and worse the
compensation is far from satisfactory, in fact much below market rates. Moreover,
in some cases the poor farmers and their families are deprived of not only their
livelihood but are thrown out of their shelter, where they resided for
decades.
The SEZ syndrome has aggravated the
problem further as corporate houses prefer setting up units in such zones where
no law of the land applies – no labour law, no environmental law and no
panchyati raj law. It may be mentioned that SEZs were created in 2006 through
the SEZ Act of 2005 which allowed the government to appropriate farmers’ land
and hand it over to corporations.
The justification given for land
acquisition by most States is to gear up industrial growth as agriculture has
become unproductive and cannot look after the economic needs of such large
population dependent on it. But though political leaders talk of acquiring of
non-productive and barren land for industrial use, in practice, however, they
acquire the land that the corporate house had identified which is obviously in
a convenient location.
The theory of increasing revenue
from industrialization and achieving high growth of the GDP is the ultimate
objective before the Government, even though it may have to be achieved by
displacing and killing people. Though there is much talk of strengthening
agriculture and eradicating poverty at various seminars and conferences, these seem
only to misguide the people and make headlines in newspapers. The corporate
lobby, which is hand-in-glove with the political leaders, is extremely strong
and would go to any extent of acquiring land, even if it may be multi-crop.
A section of so-called western
educated experts, who have little idea about rural India or the land-man ratio
or the average income of rural households, justify the takeover of such land on
grounds that it would facilitate faster industrialization and strengthen the State’s
economy. Wanting to be magnanimous enough, they would talk of rehabilitation
but have no practical idea of how difficult it is for a family, ousted from its
roots, to earn its livelihood in a new place. In the global quest for
globalization, for faster industrialization and for increase in profits, some
people at the lowest rung of the ladder may have to sacrifice their lives,
either due to starvation or hunger or because of displacement.
The huge land requirement for SEZs all over the country
obviously involves displacement of thousands of farmers, and this has become a
subject of intense debate among politicians, businessmen and social activists.
This has to be viewed in the present context of the need for using agricultural
land for enhanced food production keeping in view the rapid growth of
population and the somewhat stagnant growth of cereal production. Historian
Sumit Sarkar aptly observed that SEZs could become “the biggest land grab
movement in the history of modern India”. Both the Congress and the
Left are perturbed with such a definition, since displacement of farmers could
be politically costly, specially for the former, on the eve of ensuing
elections.
The recent spurt in food prices in
the Third World countries is a pointer to the
emerging crisis. In India
imports have been increasing and the chairman of the National Commission on
Farmers, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, in his report, has called to conserve farmland
only for agriculture and not for diverting it for non-agricultural activities,
such as setting up of SEZs. He has also rightly urged the formation of an
expert committee at the State level to identify waste and non-fallow land,
which can be used for industrial purposes. Regrettably, nothing has been done so
far.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry’s report last
year (August 2007) suggested that the Government should explicitly ban the
acquisition of double-crop land for building zones in the rules to the SEZ Act.
Even single-crop rain-fed land should account for 20 per cent of the area
covered by a multi-product zone, the panel, headed by Murli Manohar Joshi
observed. It significantly also recommended that the ceiling on cultivable land
be reduced to 2000 hectares and there should be a freeze on notification of new
duty-free enclaves till the policy is reviewed. This apart, it sought that 50
per cent of the area be used for as processing zone.
One
may mention here that, according to the Central Statistical Organization
(2002), India
has 18 million hectares (44.5 million acres) of cultivable wasteland and 25
million hectares (61.7 million acres) of fallow land. Taken together, it accounts
for 43 million hectares (106.2 million acres) of both cultivable waste and
fallow land. Obviously, there is enough such land available for
industrialization. Instead of setting up SEZs on multi-cropped land, it would
be judicious to use waste and fallow land.
But
probably gauging the defiant mood being manifest in Bengal, Haryana, Maharashtra and Orissa, the Government has taken a few
steps to help its own case. The Centre has announced that all land has to be
acquired with the consent of owners and the ceiling for all SEZs would be 5,000
hectares (12,500 acres). But it needs to be further reduced to 2,000 hectares,
as recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry. Moreover,
the minimum processing area for SEZs has been raised to 50 per cent (from the
earlier 35 per cent). However, what is most significant is the decision that
“no State can compulsorily acquire land (for an SEZ) from farmers through the
Land Acquisition Act”. However, we see acquisition of land continues
unabated.
Worse, no serious thought has been given to the actual plan
of rehabilitation of farmers and of ensuring sustainable livelihood for the
displaced families. Though Dr Swaminathan and various development experts and
planners expressed apprehensions, little has been done. It is now imperative
that recommendations on land acquisition should clearly include: fallow or
wetland acquisition instead of farmlands for takeover purposes; a ban on
multi-crop land takeover; single crop land preferably should also not be taken unless
really needed; no State government would ever acquire any land for private
industry/SEZ; and a final rehabilitation and resettlement Act following the
policy would have to be implemented at the earliest before making any move to
acquire land in rural (or even urban) areas for industrialization/urbanization
purposes.
Clearly, the trouble over land acquisition
is becoming more acute as days pass by. The
political parties and the industry need to sit together and work out a decent
formula to ensure that everyone turns out to be a beneficiary—the farmer, the
industrialist and the State. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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Medical Tourism:INDIA ‘FIT’ FAVOURITE, by Radhakrishna Rao,12 September 2008 |
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HEALTH SPECIAL
New Delhi, 12 September 2008
Medical Tourism
INDIA ‘FIT’ FAVOURITE
By Radhakrishna Rao
Quietly and efficiently, India is emerging as a favored
medical destination for health tourists keen on getting their ailments treated
without any hassles at an affordable cost. A recent study carried out by the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) points out that medical tourism could be
a US$1 billion business by 2012.
Today, patients from across the world, a majority of them
from S Asian and West Asian countries flock to Indian hospitals for high-end
treatments including heart surgery and knee replacement. The numbers can be
gauged by the fact that one leading corporate hospital chain, which operates in
30 places across the country, alone has treated more than one lakh foreign
tourists.
Clearly, high quality health care at affordable costs and
English speaking doctors and medical staff have conspired to turn Indian into
an attractive destination for getting medical treatment. Moreover, the easy
availability of a medical visa (since 2005) has also contributed to the
country’s popularity as a preferred medical tourism destination.
In recent years, it has also become the ‘hot favourite’ for
fertility treatment. Given that it is safe and legal. Not only that. According
to the Union Health Ministry, the cost of infertility treatment here is at
least 25% cheaper than the cost of similar service in the USA and West Europe.
For instance, while in the USA
a surrogacy procedure carries a hefty price tag of US$ 50,000 in India it costs
just US$10,000.
In fact, the Union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni is quite
bullish about the prospects of medical tourism in the country. Asserted she, “As
much as US$ 6.5 billion are in the pipeline for setting up affordable hospitals
and budget hotels to support medical tourism.”
Further, an in-depth study by the Planning Commission has concluded
that the superior quality of medical services along with the low cost of
surgeries has made the country one of the most attractive destinations for
medical value travel. The study points out that while a heart bypass surgery here
would cost a patient just US$ 6000, the same procedure would cost US$ 7894 in Thailand, US$ 10,417 in Singapore and US$ 23,938 in the US.
Significantly, according to the Union Health Ministry the
number of foreign tourists visiting the country for medical treatment has been
going up by 20% every year. The long waiting period involved in getting diagnosed
and treated in hospitals across the US and UK, has helped make India ‘fit’ for
treatment. As the waiting period for patients to get checked and treated is
quite negligible.
Stated two top cardiac and orthopedic practitioners, “The
majority of our patients come from the US
and Canada
for serious cardiac or orthopedic surgeries. There is a minimum recuperation
period for which the patient needs to stay in the country after the surgery.”
However, everything is not hunky dory for India’s booming
medical tourism sector. Primarily, because there are a number of hurdles. “Even though we are on par with any other
country as far as medical facilities are concerned, our basic infrastructure
needs to be developed for India
to become the most coveted medical tourism destination,” said a CEO of a Bangalore hospital.
Besides this, the other barriers include lack of transparent
world-wide data on the quality of health care, travel inconvenience and the desire
to undergo medical procedures in familiar settings. Similarly, continuity of
care is a major issue for those suffering from chronic ailments.
Moreover, it is not clear how well a multi-national approach
can address this serious problem. “As they gear up to benefit from foreign
patients, Indian hospitals need to
determine what steps they are willing to take to capture the potentially large
upside of the medical travel sponsored by the third parties,” stated, a top
executive of a multi-national company in
New Delhi.
Presently, India
lags behind Thailand, Singapore and Israel in terms of general
infrastructure and the number of health tourists. However, with some fine-tuning,
improved coordination and better image-building, India could very well emerge as one
of the most preferred destinations of medical tourism in the economically
booming Asia-Pacific region.
“Popular health-care tourism destinations such as Thailand and Singapore, first promoted their
tourism potential and then health-care tourism. India is doing both simultaneously
which would take sometime to work,” surmised the President of Association of
Hospitals of Eastern India.
This apart, importantly, our ancient medi-care system of Ayurveda
is gaining popularity in Western countries and is becoming a major component of
medical tourism. In fact, much before the concept of medical tourism took off,
a large number of Western tourists keen on getting rejuvenation therapies based
on Ayurvedic principles used to visit the many Ayurvedic resorts in Kerala.
Taking a cue from the Kerala experience, other States
including Karnataka and Uttarakhand have set-up Ayurvedic resorts to attract
both domestic and foreign patients. Observed a holistic healthcare expert on
yoga and ayurveda, “We need a bigger vision for the next 15-20 years rather
than focusing on current issues. It could be an integrated facility, ranging
from super-specialty to yoga, research and even IT (Information Technology) and
BT (Bio-technology) research related to medicare.
Perhaps one of the little known advantages enjoyed by India’s corporate
health-care sector being increasingly patronized by foreign patients is the
rapid expansion of the satellite-based tele-medicine network. This was
introduced in the country by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
A recent study by CII’s health-care services division states
that our hospitals are now mainly frequented by patients from S Asian and West
Asian countries, UK, East
Africa and Uzbekistan.
And in recent months, patients from New Zealand
and Australia too have been
finding India
an ideal destination for getting treated at a very affordable cost. ---- INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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Appalling Rate Of Literacy:RIGHT TO EDUCATION IMPERATIVE, by Dhurjati Mukherjee, 5 September 2008 |
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People & Their Problems
New Delhi, 5 September 2008
Appalling Rate Of
Literacy
RIGHT TO EDUCATION
IMPERATIVE
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
The long-awaited Right to Education Bill has now been
referred to a Group of Ministers for a review, delaying a seven-year old
commitment to guaranteed schooling yet again. The Bill, as is well known, is to
implement the 83rd Constitutional Amendment of 2001, which made education a
fundamental right for children between years six and 14.
In its present form, the proposal will cost the exchequer Rs
12,000 crores a year. Private unaided schools would not be outside its ambit as
25 per cent of seats would have to be reserved by them for poor children in the
neighbourhood. It is understood that several educationists have objected to the
Human Resource Development Ministry draft, alleging it would only legalize the
gulf in schooling opportunities available to the rich and poor.
According to a UNESCO report “Education for All: Global Monitoring
Report, 2006” as many as 47 countries have already achieved universal primary
education and 20 more are likely to do so by the 2015. But 23 countries,
including India,
may not achieve the target i.e. may not be able to impart universal primary
education by 2015. The Report pointed out that there are 771 million people
above 15 years (adult literates) in the world and India
and China
account for nearly half of them (46 per cent). India’s
share at 261 million is much larger than 87 million of China. And 54
per cent of adult illiterates are women.
Thus, it is virtually clear that over the years the
government has virtually neglected primary education, specially that of girls.
Though, as per Census 2001, the government has claimed literacy rate of around
71 per cent for the 15-35 age group, experts believe this may not be true. Even
if we consider these people literate (literally speaking), it may be that a
large section may only be able to write their names in their mother tongue and
this attainment has little value to any person in life.
This appalling scenario calls for some prompt action on the
part of the government to legalize the right to education. Delving into
official statistics, one finds that in 2004-05, only one-fourth of the rural
families had literate member of age 15 and above, while in urban areas there
were only 8 per cent households. It may be mentioned that it took 20 years to
raise the national literacy rate by 22 per cent from 43 per cent in 1981 to 65
per cent in 2001. However, one should not find solace with the above as a mere
24 per cent in rural and 20 per cent in urban areas have been considered
literate up to primary level.
It is not that the country lacks schools in the rural areas.
In 2005, India
had 10.2 lakh primary middle schools, of which 9 lakh were in rural and 1.2
lakh in urban areas. Attendance rates in rural primary schools increased from
69 per cent in 2000 to around 80 per cent in 2005, moving closer to the urban
attendance rate of 89 per cent. One cannot deny that the mid-day meal scheme
has helped in pushing up the attendance rate.
However, the attendance rate is just 40 per cent in the
rural areas while in urban areas it is around 58 per cent. The gap is quite
discernible between the rural and urban areas but what is most distressing is
the condition of a large number of rural schools. Statistics reveal that about
one lakh schools (11 per cent) have merely one classroom and a single teacher
from class one to five whereas 6.1 per cent have fewer than three or fewer
classrooms (68 per cent). According to the National University of Educational
Planning & Administration (NUEPA), nearly one-third schools do not have a pucca building and classes are held in
tents, under the open sky.
Nearly five lakh schools in rural India do not have regular
headmasters or teachers and 7.3 lakh schools (or 82 per cent) have five or
fewer teachers. Another startling fact is that 80 per cent of rural schools do
not have electricity compared to 32 per cent in urban areas. Worse, 42 per cent
of schools do not even have a common toilet for boys and girls. In Jharkhand, Assam
and Chhatisgarh, nearly three out of four schools have no toilet!
Further, it is apparent from the above facts that the
environment for teaching from all angles is grossly inadequate and not
conducive for proper schooling. It would be difficult to call schools with less
than three classrooms and teachers each as centres of education. What worthwhile
education can be imparted? This primary schools scenario, specially in rural India, proves
beyond doubt the poverty existing in our countryside and as a result of which a
major section of the population is deprived of proper and meaningful education.
Another problem is that of shortage of teachers in the rural
areas. The resources of most States have been a hindrance to their recruitment.
Moreover, around half have not studied beyond the senior secondary level. Clearly,
there is need to recruit larger number of teachers, even if it means recruiting
part-time teachers with a monthly emoluments of Rs 3000 or so. With high levels
of economic growth and dwindling poverty ratio, it is indeed surprising that in
rural areas only around 15 per cent have studied up to middle level (18 per
cent in urban areas) and 8 per cent up to secondary level.
Apart from all this comes the vital issue of the quality of
education imparted and the sincerity of the teachers to reach out to students.
It is said that communication is a vital element in teaching, specially to students
up to middle-level. However, surveys reveal that
this communicative trait has been very poor among the teachers. A reason could well be that they are
overburdened with the number of classes and, as such, cannot fulfill their
responsibilities properly. This is because the level of knowledge in
mathematics, science or even the mother tongue among students between class
five to eight has been found to be extremely poor in the rural (and even semi
urban) areas.
Forty years ago, the Kothari Commission had recommended ways
of improving the education system and allocating six per cent of GDP to this
sector. But government spending has always remained low (below four per cent)
compared to the developed world. The low spending by the government on
education has affected the poorer sections, which thus get mediocre education.
Add to this lack of resources, slack management and monitoring, which leads to decline
in quality.
What then needs to be done? A simple answer: give a serious
thought to bringing about a transformation in the education system which
benefits all sections and classes of society. This entails: making education
more realistic, down-to-earth and based on actual real life experience; allotment
of more resources for gearing up education in the rural areas so that each
village should have a school up to Class X; improving the quality of education
through sensitization of teachers, etc; providing poor students with mid-day
meals and books, encouraging them to attend school; improving the course content
and induction of materials pertaining to environmental, human rights, sex
education etc; ensuring that school education (whether primary or secondary) is
free from any kind of political interference; and lastly involving the community,
i.e. NGOs and CBOs in motivating students to attend school.
Thus, a paradigm shift in our outlook to education has
become an imperative need today. As is well known, a country cannot prosper
(however high the GDP may rise) if a significant percentage of its population
remains illiterate or uneducated and cannot join the mainstream. The need for
free and compulsory education was voiced long back, even before Independence by
Gandhiji and Gokhale, and this has now to be turned into a reality. However,
political will, sincerity of purpose and involvement of the community are critical
aspects in achieving the goal. Let us spread education to the far corners of
our country--INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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Pay Commission Anomalies:let’s not Demoralise Defence Forces, by Col. (Dr.) P. K. Vasudeva (Retd.), |
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Defence Notes
New Delhi, 9 September 2008
Pay Commission Anomalies
let’s not Demoralise
Defence Forces
By Col. (Dr.) P. K. Vasudeva (Retd.)
Prior
to the appointment of a Sixth Central Pay Commission (CPC) for better pay
scales for Central Government employees including the defence services, the
three Services chiefs had asked the Government for a separate Pay Commission
for defence services. The reason: there are different service conditions, which
have not been appreciated by the previous pay commissions.
The
Service chiefs have been proved right. They are “unwilling to implement” the
Sixth CPC report as it is. Recent media reports state that the three Chiefs have
apprised Defence Minister A K Antony and want the "anomalies" removed
and the status and parity of pay scales to be restored.
After sensing the mood, Antony is learnt to have assured the Chiefs that
he would take up the matter with the Government. Till then, the three Chiefs
have sought that implementation for officer ranks be “held in abeyance.” They
have, however, thanked the Government for hiking salaries of Personnel Below
Officer Ranks (PBORs) as desired. But, their grievance that the disparity
between service officers and their civil service counterparts not only remains,
but has increased. Basically they point out:
·
Disparity in Pay Bands: The chiefs claim the Committee of
Secretaries (CoS) moved the Director rank into Pay Band 4 but retained Lt. Col
and its equivalent in other services in Pay Band 3. Earlier, they claim, a Lt.
Col got the same pay as an IAS Director and Rs 800 more than a non-IAS
Director. Now he gets Rs 14000 less than an IAS director and Rs 11000 less than
a non-IAS director.
·
Disparity in Grade Pay: The CoS agreed to their demand to an
increase in grade pay across middle-rank officers but also increased the grade
pay of civil servants, thereby retaining disparity, the chiefs say. For
example, he Pay Commission recommended Rs 6600 for a civil servant equivalent
to a Major who was to get Rs 6100. After review, a Major will now get Rs 6600
but his equivalent in the civil service will get Rs 7600.
· Restricting elite list: The new category of HAG-plus (Higher
Administrative Grade) includes all DGs and DGPs but only Army Commanders and
their equivalents in other services, the chiefs complain. Their demand: all Lt.
Gen officers be included in this category. The Defence Ministry is said to have
conveyed that the objections are being looked into and a response will be given
soon.
While Antony
appears to be sympathetic, the Finance Ministry has strongly denied any
"injustice" to the Armed forces in this new pay structure. Its
officials are emphatic:"In no way are the defence personnel getting any
lesser pay than their civilian counterparts. In fact, they will carry home
fatter pay packets than civilian services and paramilitary under the new salary
structures of the CPC."
Quoting the new feature of Military Service Pay (MSP) in the
CPC, officials say the Armed forces officers would uniformly get Rs 6,000 more,
whereas such a pay was not offered to the civilians and the paramilitary. "Under
the 5th CPC there was no compensation provided for the risk factor involved in
the defence personnel's job profile. MSP has taken care of that lacuna in the
6th CPC."
Also, the MSP would be counted along with the Basic Pay of Armed
Forces officers for calculating the Dearness Allowance (DA). "That would
provide them with Rs 960 DA and the amount would increase as the DA is
hiked," is another argument. In addition, defence officers posted in
Siachen would get an allowance of Rs 14,000 and an High Altitude Allowance of
Rs 8,000, which adds up to a total of Rs 22,000. Earlier, the personnel were
getting only Rs 7,000 as Siachen Allowance and Rs 4,000 as High Altitude
Allowance, adding up to Rs 11,000.
Citing an example of the entry-level defence officers in the
rank of Lieutenants and equivalent in Navy and Air Force, the officials explain
that under the 5th CPC under the pay scale of Rs 8,250-10,500, they received a
salary totalling Rs 15,252 as on December 31, 2005. "On January 1, 2006,
from when the 6th CPC would be effective, a Lieutenant under the Pay Band-3
will receive an additional Grade Pay of Rs 5,400 and MSP of Rs 6,000, making
his or her total emoluments Rs 27,000.
As on September 1, 2008, when the 6th CPC was implemented, a Lieutenant
would get total emoluments of Rs 28, 947," the officials add. As against
this, their civilian counterparts in the pay scale of Rs 8,000-13,500 under 5th
CPC had received a pay of Rs 14,880.
Another argument put forth is: A Lt Colonel under the 5th CPC
received a Gross Pay of Rs 28,086. But under the 6th CPC, he would receive a
Grade Pay of Rs 7,600 and MSP of Rs 6,000 under Pay Band-3. His pay as on
January 1, 2006, would be Rs 41,690. From September 1, 2008, when 6th CPC was
implemented, Lt Colonel’s emoluments stood at Rs 45,000.
With
the Finance Ministry virtually rejecting their demands, the Armed Forces' chiefs
rightly have asked that the issues raised by them should be addressed by the
country's political leadership and not Anomalies Committee. "The CPC
created disparities are not just pay anomalies, but core issues. Hence, these
cannot be left to the Anomalies Committee. But the Cabinet must consider them and
issue a corrigendum to the CPC notification," Navy chief Admiral Sureesh
Mehta, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, insists.
Clearly,
the issues such as "extant parities of pay" to Lieutenant Colonels
and equivalent officers vis-à-vis their civilian and paramilitary counterparts,
is not just related to the CPC, but could seriously jeopardise
"operational" and "functional" harmony of the defence
forces, whenever and wherever they worked alongside the civilian and paramilitary
forces officers. .
Let
us face the facts that the disparity "badly demoralise" the officers
of the Armed Forces and if these persist, it could lead to
"despondency" among the defence cadre. Admiral Mehta has even met
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to press for the removal of anomalies, explaining
that it has serious implications of the command and control element during
Unified Command Operations if not addressed. Singh is learnt to have promised
that he will personally look into the issues raised.
Let us hope
that the Cabinet Committee on Security removes these disparities so that the
soldiers do not get demoralised and save the nation from a serious catastrophe.
A demoralised force cannot save the sovereignty, security and integrity of the
country. –INFA
(Copyright, India
News and Feature Alliance)
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