New Delhi: According to a recent circular issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), if you don’t have an Aadhaar number or enrolment slip, you may not be entitled to avail government subsidies and benefits.

The UIDAI issued a circular to all central ministries and state governments last week.

This circular is issued on August 11 to tighten the Aadhaar rules for those who don’t have an Aadhaar number and are availing of the subsidies and benefits provided by the government.

If you want certificates by govt which are used for determining the eligibility of beneficiaries for delivery of benefits/subsidies/services under government schemes, they must have the Aadhar number, said the circular.

According to the circular issued on August 11 by UIDAI, there is an existing provision in section 7 of the Aadhaar Act to facilitate a person who has not been assigned an Aadhaar number, to avail of the benefits, subsidies, and services “through alternate and viable means of identification.”

The latest circular says that more than 99 per cent of adults in the country have been issued an Aadhaar number now.

“Thus in the above backdrop and considering the proviso to Section 7 of the Act…in case no Aadhaar number has been assigned to an individual, he/she shall make an application for enrolment and till such time Aadhaar number is assigned to such individual, he/she may avail the benefits, subsidies and services through alternate and viable means of identification along with Aadhaar Enrolment Identification (EID) number/slip,” the circular mentioned.

This means an Aadhaar Enrolment Identification (EID) number/slip would be required for availing central and state government services, benefits, and subsidies if one does not have an Aadhaar number yet.

The circular says a multitude of services and benefits are being transferred directly to the residents owing to the wide coverage of 99 per cent adults having Aadhaar identification. “Aadhaar has significantly improved the quality of resident/citizen experience in receiving welfare services,” the circular said.

UIDAI issued one more circular on August 11, which says entities may make the Virtual Identifier (VID) optional. “Some government entities may require the Aadhaar number in their respective databases for smooth implementation of the social welfare schemes. Therefore, such government entities may require beneficiaries to provide Aadhaar numbers and made VID optional,” the UIDAI has said in the circular.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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The summer of 2021 has been particularly cruel to dairy farmers. There is ample production but dismal procurement, thus leading to an alarming drop in sales. 

State Milk Producers and Processing Professionals’ Welfare Association Secretary Prakash Kutwal told SabrangIndia, “Milk producers were comparatively better off in 2020 considering the long summer and heat. Now, in 2021, Maharashtra’s milk sales have reduced by 40 percent.” 

Kutwal recounted how milk sales dipped yet again during the second wave of Covid-19, despite great sales observed in March, 2021. The unofficial lockdown caused by the surging Covid-deaths quashed farmers’ hopes of reviving the dairy sector this summer.

With rains coming in early, and eateries shutting down, the demand for cold products like ice-cream was much lesser than last year resulting in lesser sales for milk. Hostels and tea shops were also closed down in the city. Accordingly, procurement decreased by 10 percent. Kutwal said that due to the sudden impact on the food sector, milk producers got Rs. 22 per litre when they should have received at least Rs. 25 per litre.

Recently, two farmers unions: Milk Producers Farmers Struggle Committee and All India Kisan Sabha, called for a state-wide agitation on June 17,2021. In their joint statement they condemned private milk companies and co-operative milk unions for reducing the purchase price of milk by Rs. 10 to Rs. 18 per litre. This is in sharp contrast to pre-lockdown prices of Rs. 30-38 per litre.

“Private milk companies and co-operative milk unions have collectively pushed down rates and made huge profits. The state collects 13 million litres of milk every day. Of this, 40 lakh litres are used for making milk powder. The remaining 90 lakh litres of milk is distributed for domestic use by pouch packing,” said the statement.

Leaders emphasised that domestic consumption has remained stable through it all. Therefore, there is no need to consider 30 to 40 percent milk as excess; an alleged rumour promoted by milk companies to reduce milk prices.

A similar situation persists in neighbouring Gujarat. Sumul Dairy Director and farmer leader Jayesh Delad told SabrangIndia that milk sales decreased from Rs. 11 lakh in January, 2021 to Rs. 9 lakh during the second wave. In 2020 sales had fallen as far as Rs. 8 lakh following Rs. 11 lakh sales in May, 2019. On a positive note, he mentioned that sales were slowly recovering to Rs. 10 lakh in June. However, the possibility of a third wave still leaves dairy farmers with an uncertain future. State-wide, 1,50,000 tonne milk powder remains unused.

Even in case of small-scale farmers, companies like Amul do not change their prices while dealing with non-cooperative farmers, he said. At the same time, production costs keep increasing due to sky-high prices of diesel and petrol.

“In last few days, fuel prices have increased while milk prices haven’t increased in two years. So we have to increase prices,” said Delad.

Covid-19 lockdown caused a drop in the market demand due to closure of the outlets selling livestock products. A large number of private dairies were impacted and they stopped milk procurement from the farmers. This resulted in the farmers diverting their milk to the cooperatives.

As a result, milk procurement in the cooperative sector increased because, as per their mandate, they could not reject milk supplied by the farmers. The cooperatives are faced with liquidity problems due to higher conversion into milk powder and white butter caused by higher milk procurement.

Milk producers’ demands to state governments

When asked about preventive measures for measures in light of a third wave of coronavirus, Delad demanded subsidies from the government for the export sale of milk powder. In October 2020, the Gujarat government gave a Rs. 150 crore subsidy for powder. Delad suggests increasing this subsidy to Rs. 180 crore. Yet, no such schemes have been declared for the powder or butter lying unused.

According to Kutwal, milk companies like Gokul and Warna have made similar demands to the government and also gave money to dairy farmers albeit with no receipt. Maharashtra’s Milk Producers Farmers Struggle Committee and AIKS demanded a purchase and sale audit of milk of all private milk companies and co-operative milk unions during lockdown period by the state government.

It accused private workers of looting the milk producers and as such asked that the government obtain objective statistics on how much milk companies actually bought, sold and at what rate.

“Laws should be enacted for private and co-operative milk companies. An 80-20 revenue sharing policy should be implemented in the milk sector, strict measures should be taken to curb adulteration in milk, and a brand policy should be implemented,” they said in a press note.

Centre’s contribution in helping milk producers?

As per the Economic Survey 2020-21, milk and products was the only item in terms of protein-rich food inflation (not including vegetables) that declined continuously from 9.4 percent in April 2020 to 4.0 percent in December 2020.

Accordingly, the central government boasted of several measures to increase the productivity of livestock and, by extension, milk production such as the ongoing scheme State Dairy Cooperative & Farmers Producers Organization (SDCFPO), inclusion of livestock in Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme and a stimulus package of Rs. 15,000 crores under the Prime Minister’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat for animal husbandry infrastructure.

However, when asked about the various initiatives announced by the government since 2019, the Maharashtra leader Kutwal said there is no government presence on the field. In fact, he said some money from past schemes was still pending. Similar responses came from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh as well.

As for the KCC scheme, of the 1.5 crore or so dairy farmers associated with 230 milk unions and milk producing companies during June 1 to December 31, 2020, 47.81 lakh applications were collected. Out of those, 36.18 lakh applications were forwarded to banks by October 3, 2020.

Persisting despite troubles

West Bengal’s Kangsabati cooperative milk producers’ union has begun selling its produce to Covid-19 hospitals and stay-at-home patients in an effort to keep sales afloat. However, as the epidemic continues in waves, experts call for effective moves to improve the milk sector.

The situation persists even in regions of Uttar Pradesh, the leading state in terms of milk production. Speaking to SabrangIndia, Chandra village resident Dilpreet from Amroha district said farmers have been suffering since last year under the dual burden of the pandemic and the three farm laws forcibly passed by the central government.

“On top of that, when products are stopped because of the Covid-19 virus, we face a lot of problems. Farm loans hit us with double or even triple interest. Meanwhile, last year prices were around Rs. 30 per bag of milk. In January 2021, this increased to Rs. 40 thanks to farmers body Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s intervention,” he said.

Despite this increase in prices, Dilpreet only noticed a significant increase in village deaths rather than profits. When asked about government schemes, he says he too has seen no impact on the ground-level. A few years ago, the ruling party provided cows. However, following elections, dairy farmers lost the party’s attention and the cows too died.

“Every dairy farmer has a side business because they cannot keep their animal alive and household running by simply selling milk,” he said, emphasising the need for the government to not only procure grains but also find a solution for dairy farmers, whose future is marred by looming uncertainty.

Related:

No call for boycott of milk sales or higher sales price: SKM
Karnataka dairy farmers in distress as Bamul officials refuse to collect milk
Agricultural Bills passed sans votes! Nation-wide, farmers rise in anger, Oppn United

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India, the world’s second largest consumer of coal and the fourth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, accounts for 7% of global emissions and continues to subsidise the loss-making, polluting coal industry. Burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions warming up the planet.

Subsidies for oil and gas decreased from Rs 1.5 lakh crore ($21 billion) in 2014 to Rs 36,900 crore ($5.1 billion) in 2017, while coal subsidies increased by 2%, from Rs 15,650 crore ($2.20 billion) to Rs 15,900 crore ($2.23 billion), according to the December 2018 IISD study.
The biggest chunk of coal subsidies was on customs and excise duties, to reduce input costs for coal-fired power generation. In 2017, the coal industry received concessions worth Rs 7,523 crore ($1 billion) on customs duty on imports. The same year, the coal sector also received concessions on excise duty amounting to Rs 6,913 crore ($960 million). Together, these formed 91% (Rs 14,436 crore) of coal subsidies in 2017, said the IISD study.

India’s demand for coal in financial year (FY) 2017-18 was 908 million tonnes (MT), but domestic production, at only 676 MT, fell short by 34%, according to the ministry of coal.

Despite these concessions and high demand, investors have seen their holdings in key Indian coal-mining and coal-based power companies underperform the Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex by an average of 10% a year since 2013, costing Rs 25,000 crore ($3.5 billion) in forgone returns, according to a December study by the non-governmental environmental organisation Greenpeace.

Government policies on coal subsidies saw major changes in 2017, with the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), a unified tax which subsumed several indirect taxes, including customs and excise duties. The net value of coal subsidies, however, was unlikely to reduce significantly in 2018, said the IISD report.

While abolishing concessional custom duty rates increased the price of coal imports in 2018, the introduction of a new concession of 5% on the sales tax rate for coal under the GST nearly offset the difference, said the report.

The concession under GST provided subsidies to coal worth Rs 12,122 crore ($1.7 billion) in 2018–84% of the subsidies received by coal in 2017 under former customs and excise duty rates, as per the IISD study. While this represents a decrease, it reflects only a part of the actual subsidies received by the coal industry.

Reduced coal subsidies post-GST are a mirage due to hidden subsidies
A less conservative definition of a subsidy that includes external costs would reveal the true extent of the subsidies to the coal sector in India.

The lack of penalties for non-compliance with India’s environmental norms has also been considered as a subsidy in the IISD study.

Thermal power companies in India escaped penalties worth Rs 853 crore ($119 million) in 2014 and Rs 981 crore ($137 million) in 2017 for not washing coal before use, as per environmental regulations. This was the “largest subsidy” identified by the IISD study in the “non-compliance” group of subsidies.

“[Use of] unwashed domestic coal in power generation also results in reduced efficiency of power plants, requiring [superior quality] coal imports to improve the overall combustion characteristics,” said the IISD study.

The total untaxed external costs associated with coal use were worth Rs 12 lakh crore ($196 billion) in India in 2015, the IISD report said, citing calculations by global monetary cooperation organisation, the International Monetary Fund. This is nearly 400 times the entire environment ministry budget of Rs 3,111 crore in 2019-20.

Electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) is the largest single recipient of energy subsidies in India, receiving concessions worth Rs 83,313 crore ($11.7 billion) in 2017. Though India is making efforts to turn its electricity grid greener, with 20% of T&D based on renewable sources, T&D continues to largely support coal-fired electricity in India, with 60% based on coal sources. About 60% of the subsidies T&D receives are thus effectively coal subsidies, as per the IISD study. IISD, however, has not included T&D subsidies in calculating the total coal subsidies in 2017.

Not least are further external costs associated with coal–air pollution and associated health problems, environmental problems and greenhouse gas emissions–listed by the IISD study.

Stressed coal sector under further pressure as India shifts to greener power generation
India has made good progress in greening its power generation by doubling capacity from renewable resources (solar, wind, etc.) over four years to 2018. Renewables now account for one-fifth of India’s total installed power capacity. Government subsidies for renewable power generation also grew six-fold over the three years to 2017, from Rs 2,608 crore ($366 million) in 2014 to Rs 15,040 crore ($2.1 billion).

But although coal remains the source of about 60% of India’s electricity production, the sector is under stress. With higher costs than solar- or wind-based electricity production, and the burden of green taxes, it is beset by financial difficulties. Poor coal supply, locations distant from coal sources, use of outdated equipment and lack of long-term power purchase agreements were cited as the main causes of financial stress in the coal sector by a parliament committee report.

Since 2010, India has seen coal plant proposals worth 573 gigawatt (GW) cancelled or shelved–1.5 times the current total working capacity–according to a 2018 report by Global Coal Plant Tracker, the End Coal advocacy group’s global repository of information on coal.
Over the past 4-5 years, India added 20 GW of fossil fuel-based thermal power generation capacity annually. But, in FY 2017-18, this slowed down substantially, with a net capacity addition of just 5 GW, Vibhuti Garg, energy economist at think tank Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis and a co-author of the IISD study, told IndiaSpend. This excludes the capacity of retiring power plants and captive capacity [a power plant that an industry builds for its own use] from the total thermal capacity addition in the country.
“In FY 2018-19, it is expected that the net addition will be -0.5 GW or [-500 MW], implying that there were more retirements than capacity added in the past year, so 2019 will be crucial [for the transition from fossil fuel-based to greener sources of energy],” Garg said.
About 40 GW of coal-fired power projects are also stranded, with work yet to begin or curtailed due to financial unviability. Of this, 15.7 GW–or 39%–is not even commissioned, according to government data.

Some of these projects had signed long-term agreements at low tariffs. A subsequent rise in the cost of coal-fired generation due to higher coal prices–particularly of coal imports–as well as the cost of freight charges for coal transportation made these projects financially unviable.

T&D companies also have to a pay a higher tariff for power from coal-based power plants. The tariff is Rs 4.39 per kilowatt-hour [kWh or unit] from a new, state-of-the-art, emissions-compliant coal-fired power plant with all favourable conditions (e.g., location close to coal source) in place, compared to Rs 2.5-3.0 per unit for a renewables project, according to government data.

“Any new coal plant commissioned could reduce business for the existing plants. We might see more coal plants becoming non-performing assets,” Nandikesh Sivalingam, a campaigner with Greenpeace India, told IndiaSpend.

India should focus on shutting down old, inefficient, polluting coal-fired power plants and prioritise efficient, emissions-compliant coal power plants, together with implementing new stricter emission norms notified by the Indian government in 2015 to reduce air pollution and water consumption, said Sivalingam.

The debate: Coal provides the base load but increases pollution and emissions
Views on the effectiveness and efficiency of India’s coal subsidies are likely to be heavily influenced by the debate on coal versus renewables in India’s energy future, said the IISD study, presenting both sides of the debate.

Advocates for coal argue that it is the cheapest option for round-the-clock power generation to meet India’s growing energy demand. This includes demand for energy access because it provides low prices for consumers through a rich domestic resource that aids energy security. According to them, coal bears most of the load of providing electricity and potentially balancing capacity for fluctuating renewable energy sources, said the IISD study, adding that renewables receive large subsidies per unit of energy generated, so subsidies for coal are needed to help redress the balance.

Yet, based on recent auctions, grid-scale solar and wind are now fully competitive with coal, without the additional costs that coal use imposes on citizens, including health issues associated with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, the study said.

(Tripathi is a principal correspondent with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend
 

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Someone’s income will surely double by 2022. But, contrary to the crazy claim, it won’t be the farmer but India’s new dollar billionaires.

So that’s it, then. From this year, there will no more be a ‘Statement of Revenue Foregone’ in the Union budget. There is indeed Rs 5,51,000 crore written off in corporate income tax, excise and customs duties. As always, mainly to the benefit of the rich. That’s even higher than last year’s Rs 5,00,823 crore in these same giveaways. But you are no longer allowed to say this is revenue foregone. Call it that and this government could actually dub you an anti-national. The word ‘foregone’, the regime’s little spin-doctors found, was damaging. It gave the game away by revealing huge corporate freebies to the public. So with this budget, ‘foregone’ is forever gone. We now have ‘The Statement of Revenue Impact of Tax Incentives under the Central Tax System’.

Gee! That sounds more sophisticated. But it’s still the same thing. The corporate karza maafi continues. The amo­unts are higher. And the total since 2005-06 is well over Rs 42 trillion. A stench by any other name smells just the same.

The revenue ‘impact’ in terms of direct corporate income tax write-offs, for instance, is Rs 68,711 crore. That’s Rs 3,644 crore more than it was last year. Not much less than the ‘massive increase’ in NREGA (Rs 3,801 crore). The latter involves the survival of millions, the former of a few corporations. This direct corporate income tax write-off is also 91 per cent higher than the Rs 35,984 crore given to ‘agriculture and farmers’ welfare’.

The government falsely claims that the Rs 38,500 crore given to NREGA in this budget is the highest ever. Truth: the allocation was roughly Rs 40,000 crore in 2006 when it was, in fact, a smaller programme. It kept close to that for a while, before P. Chidambaram worked hard at undermining it. The ‘increase’ shrinks pretty fast if you adjust it for inflation. Also, in a year when even the government speaks of high rural distress, an upward blip in spending is natural. Even in Maharashtra with its wretched NREGA performance, more and more people are seeking work under the programme. In any case, over Rs 6,000 crore of this ‘record’ sum will go in meeting pending liabilities.

Alongside this fiddle comes the crazy claim of doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022. Does the finance minister mean real income after adjusting for price rise? And how? At the heart of their crisis is how unviable farming is being rendered—by policy. Will he honour his party’s promise and boost the MSP? Will he reduce the burden of farmers locked into a high-cost econ­omy—give them access to better credit and cheaper seed, fertiliser and other inputs? There is not a hint in the budget. The lion’s share of ‘agricultural credit’ goes to urban and metro-based businesses. And the promised irrigated land—will that be done by renovation of tank systems and the like (that can be linked to the NREGA)? Or through the river-linking delusions that pro­­mise a giant bonanza for contractors but little irrigation?

Yet, dozens of anchors and editorials blather on about this being a pro-farmer, pro-rural budget. As they have every second or third year for two decades. ‘Pro-farmer’ budget should ring a warning bell. It is usually followed by further handing over of agriculture to agri-business. And terrible times for farmers. Somebody’s incomes will indeed double by 2022. It won’t be the farmers, betrayed on the increased MSP that the BJP promised them in its 2014 poll campaign. It could be India’s 111 dollar billionaires listed in the latest Hurun report. Their wealth grew by 25 per cent in a single year, the report says. And of 99 new dollar billionaires across the world added to the list since last year, 27, or nearly a third, are Indians.

The combined wealth of these 111 rose by $62 billion in 12 months to arrive at $308 billion in Hurun’s reckoning. Now, if just that increase was taxed at 30 per cent (which would be standard practice in Europe), it would come to a bit over $18 billion. Or about Rs 1,22,774 crore. Still less than a fourth of the ‘impact’ write-offs for the better-off this year. But enough to exp­and the rural employment programme by more than threefold in a year of great distress.

Gold, diamonds and jewellery write-offs are Rs 61,126 crore. That’s 58 per cent more than the greatest allocation ‘ever’ for the NREGA. And nearly 70 per cent higher than the sum for ‘agriculture and farmers’ welfare’. Since 2005-06, the amount written off as duties on gold, diamonds and jewellery comes to over 4.6 trillion rupees. More than 13 times this year’s allocation for ‘agriculture and farmers’ welfare’. If this is a pro-farmer budget, you’d hate to see what they call an anti-farmer one.
 
And remember these are not billed as ‘subsidies’, though that is very much what they are. When the government attacks ‘subsidies’, those are the ones going mainly to the poor. Food, employment, health and more. Those shilling for such a heartless assault call these “wasteful subsidies”. The ‘revenue impact’ rubbish they call “incentives”. Subsidies are what you give the poor. What they’re trying is to replace universal systems with ‘targeting’, which excludes tens of millions in need. On the other hand, ‘impact’ subsidies (aka Godzilla write-offs), those keep rising each year. The total revenue ‘impact’ write-offs this year are 140 per cent higher than revenue forgone in 2005-06, the first year for which such data is available.

In the total amount foregone to the better-off under corporate income tax, excise and customs duty since 2005-06, you could run the NREGA for about 109 years on present levels. You could transform tens of millions of lives for the better. Dropping ‘foregone’ and hiding behind the fig leaf of ‘revenue impact’ adds more than insult to injury. (In the first place, it ought to have been ‘forgone’ and not ‘foregone’. But that’s another story).It introduces a Kafkaesque idiocy to the process. Decades ago, when the US military needed to make its many wars more acceptable, or at least less shocking, they came up with the words “collateral damage”. A euphemism for countless thousands of civilians they killed in their wars. The slaughter continued, but sounded so much nicer. The authors of the budget’s sleazy semantics do something similar in their wordplay. The loot of public money, where it’s going, and the intense misery of millions in need—that drowns in collateral cliches.

The writer is a Rural Reporter and founder of People's Archive of Rural India.

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