11-07-23 Daily-Gujarat-GPSC Current Affairs

In a major advantage, the government ofGujaratreceived pending Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation cess worth Rs 9,021 crore from the Centre.

The compensation amount remained pending for over a year. According to data tabled in the state assembly, the Centre owed Gujarat a compensation worth Rs 9,136 crore as on March 31, 2023.

The Union Government owed Rs 23,332 crore to the Gujarat government for the period between January 2021 and December 2021. Similarly, the Centre owed Rs 7,068 crore to the for the period between January 2022 and June 2022, according to the response tabled in the state assembly.

Therefore, in the past two years, dues worth Rs 30,400 crore as compensation cess from the centre were yet to be cleared by the Centre. Against these dues, the state received Rs 3,364 crore in May last year and Rs 855 crore in November last year.

The Centre also provided a loan towards compensation worth Rs 17,045 crore to the state government, on condition that the Centre will pay the loan along with the interest from the Cess Fund.

When GST was rolled out, a provision was made in the act to compensate states for shortfall in revenue. According to the provisions under the GST Compensation Cess Act, the protected income of the states was determined for five years from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2022.

This protected income was computed projecting a 14% Growth in GST collection per annum, considering the fiscal year 2015-16 as the Base Year.
This means, any state reporting a shortfall in tax mop-up would be eligible for compensation from the Centre for the shortfall.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah will inaugurate a day-long mega conclave Strengthening PACS through FPOs in New Delhi on July 14, 2023. The conclave is aimed at discussing ways to strengthen <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/primary-agricultural-credit-societies”>Primary Agricultural credit Societies (PACS) through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).

The conclave will witness participation of experts from the sector as well as members from the FPOs across the country. The mega conclave is being organized by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Cooperation.

With an important initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation Ministry, the Ministry of <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has recently allocated additional blocks to NCDC to form and promote 1100 FPOs in Cooperative Sector through strengthening of PACS under the scheme to bolster the cooperative sector and provide comprehensive support to small and marginal farmers.

Under the FPOs Scheme, financial assistance of Rs.33 lakh is provided to each FPO. Further, financial assistance of Rs. 25 lakh per FPO is given to the Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) for promoting and handholding the FPOs.

The Government has been pushing for integration of the PACS in the FPO scheme to enable the farmers to expand their business range of activities such as supply of production inputs; agricultural equipments like cultivator, tiller, harvester, etc. and processing and value addition, including cleaning, assaying, sorting, grading, packing, storage, transportation, etc.

The PACS have a huge member base of around 13 crore farmers who are primarily engaged in short-term credit and distribution of seeds, Fertilizers, etc. Presently, more than 86% of farmers in the country are small and marginal.

The NCDC is a statutory organisation under Ministry of Cooperation with the mandate to plan, promote, and finance cooperatives for increasing production and productivity and instituting post-harvest facilities.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Tuesday passed a budget of Rs 134 crore — an increase of nearly 50 crore from last year — for 2023-24 during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bengaluru.

The AIFF budget for 2022-23 was Rs 87 crore, which its general secretaryShaji Prabhakaranhad termed “meagre” for a big country like India.

The AGM also approved the appointment of a statutory auditor to audit the accounts of the federation and the financial statements and audit reports of 2022-23.

A radical change in the parameters adopted by the department of school Education & Literacy, Unionministry of educationhas seen a sharp fall in scores of all states in the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI). None of the 28 states and eight Union territories have been able to finish in the top five levels Daksh, Utkarsh, Ati-Uttam, Uttam and Pracheshta-1.

Only two small states,PunjabandHaryanahave managed to get the 6th level, Pracheshta-2, with scores between 641-700. UP, along with 11 others, is among Akankshi-2 states (score band 461-520) in the PGI analysis released last week for 2021-22. In 2020-21, seven states were in level II with scores between 901-950, while none of the states could qualify for the level 1 (951-1000). UP, along with 11 other states, was in level III (score band 851-900). Likewise, last years top performing states KeralaandMaharashtra are among the second best performing states/UTs in the 2021-22 grading. Both these states plunged to Prachesta-3 (581-640 score).

Due to the drastic change in parameters, the scores of PGI 2020-21 can’t be compared with those of 2021-22, stated the PGI report. Starting in 2017-18, it was felt that many parameters of the PGI had lost relevance. Therefore, the PGI structure for 2021-22 was revised and renamed PGI 2.0.

The new PGI structure covers 73 indicators, focused more on qualitative assessment besides including digital initiatives and teacher education. It reduces the weightage given to the Governance Processes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced a new condition for approving Swedens membership in NATO, calling on European countries to open the way for Turkiye to join the European Union.

The surprise announcement by Erdogan before departing to a NATO summit in Lithuanias capital added new uncertainty to Swedens bid to become the alliances 32nd member, which Turkiye initially blocked saying Sweden was too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers security threats.

It was the first time that Erdogan linked his countrys ambition to join the EU with Swedens efforts to become a NATO member.

Turkiye is a candidate to join the EU, but democratic backsliding during Erdogans presidency, disputes with EU-member Cyprus and other issues have held up the countrys progress toward admission in the 27-nation bloc.