State could fall into debt trap in 5 years, warns CAG

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI, JULY 10, 2018 00:00 IST


Flags continuous rise in repayment burden, ‘explicit subsidies’

After five years, the State government could fall into a debt trap, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has observed.

“In Tamil Nadu, the greater portion of repayments would happen after five years. Therefore, the government could face challenges after five years and fall into a debt trap,” said the office of CAG in its report on State finances for 2016-17, adding that the maturity profile of the State’s debt indicated a year-on-year increase in its repayment burden.

The outstanding debt grew by 29.85% over the previous year. Interest payments on debt and other liabilities totalling Rs. 20,533 crore constituted 14.64% of the revenue receipts during the year. The rise in the ratio between interest payments and revenue receipts from 13.48 in 2015-16 to 14.64 in 2016-17 was due to increased interest payments (18.07%) compared to the revenue receipts (8.7%).

The CAG report also faulted the State government for having released Rs. 22,815 crore as interest-free loan “in violation” of the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed among the Centre, the State government and the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) under UDAY (Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana). The State government should have given Rs. 4,563 crore as grant and Rs. 18,252 crore as interest-free loan.

As for subsidies, the report noted that explicit subsidies were increasing continuously. They went up by Rs. 3,777 crore (30.67%) in 2016-17 compared to the previous year (Rs. 16,092 crore against Rs. 12,315 crore). Among those items covered under this category were food subsidy through public distribution system (Rs. 5,500 crore); tariff subsidy to Tangedco for domestic consumers and those engaged in agriculture and horticulture (Rs. 6,049 crore); and free distribution of clothes to people below the poverty line (Rs. 472 crore).

As for implicit subsidies, the report defined them as those coming in the form of budgetary support to financial institutions, inadequate return on investments and poor recovery of user charges. Free supply of wet grinders, mixies and fans, marriage assistance scheme and free supply of uniforms, bicycles and laptops to school and college students were some of the items falling under the category of implicit subsidies.

The report observed that the accounting “does not transparently disclose the nature of expenditure [incurred on the implicit subsidies] as is required.” The government had spent Rs. 4,434 crore in 2016-17 compared to Rs. 6,156 crore the previous year.

Parent continues his fight for transparency in medical fees

R. Sujatha

CHENNAI, JULY 10, 2018 00:00 IST

His daughter chose another course, but the man is still seeking answers

A parent has been running from official to official hoping to bring transparency in the fee structure of self-financing medical colleges.

Kantesh Kumar Singh’s woes began on August 29, 2017, when his daughter was allotted a seat in a self-financing college in Kancheepuram district.

The college told him to pay Rs. 7.10 lakh, instead of Rs. 3.85 lakh stipulated by the government.

His queries on why the fee was almost double of what was mentioned in the university-issued prospectus did not get him satisfactory answers.

He then flagged the issue with the Directorate of Medical Education and later the Health Secretary, but it had no effect.

He then approached the Fee Fixation Committee, which provided him with the government order on the break-up of fees charged. Mr. Kantesh took up the issue again with the DME and the Health Secretary, who directed the DME to constitute a committee.

Mr. Singh’s daughter, a CBSE student, qualified in NEET in 2016 with 383 marks, and in 2017 she scored 338 marks. Unhappy with the college’s response to their queries, she chose not to join.

But Mr. Singh decided to seek answers from the university.

His persistence paid off when the committee provided him with a copy of the Government Order on the fee fixation committee proceedings.

Five-hour inquiry

In November 2017, the DME’s office informed him to accompany the inquiry committee to the college. A five-hour inquiry was held on November 14 and a report was submitted.

Despite his repeated requests and through RTI, the DME did not provide the complainant with a copy of the report.

He has also written to the Governor-Chancellor’s office about his travails and is awaiting a response.

Last Thursday, he finally met the committee’s chairman who told him to bring his daughter as she was a major, Mr. Kantesh said. “I told him as her father I have been the victim and I have filed the complaint, where is the need for me to bring my daughter,” he asked.

“My daughter has chosen a different path. She is studying biotechnology and wants to pursue research. But in the interest of others like her I would like to ensure that the report of the inquiry is made public,” he said.

His demands are: there should be no ambiguity in the fee structure details in the university prospectus; it should contain a break-up of fee as mentioned in the GO; a centralised grievance system for students and parents should be constituted.

Parent continues his fight for transparency in medical fees

R. Sujatha

CHENNAI, JULY 10, 2018 00:00 IST


His daughter chose another course, but the man is still seeking answers

A parent has been running from official to official hoping to bring transparency in the fee structure of self-financing medical colleges.

Kantesh Kumar Singh’s woes began on August 29, 2017, when his daughter was allotted a seat in a self-financing college in Kancheepuram district.

The college told him to pay Rs. 7.10 lakh, instead of Rs. 3.85 lakh stipulated by the government.

His queries on why the fee was almost double of what was mentioned in the university-issued prospectus did not get him satisfactory answers.

He then flagged the issue with the Directorate of Medical Education and later the Health Secretary, but it had no effect.

He then approached the Fee Fixation Committee, which provided him with the government order on the break-up of fees charged. Mr. Kantesh took up the issue again with the DME and the Health Secretary, who directed the DME to constitute a committee.

Mr. Singh’s daughter, a CBSE student, qualified in NEET in 2016 with 383 marks, and in 2017 she scored 338 marks. Unhappy with the college’s response to their queries, she chose not to join.

But Mr. Singh decided to seek answers from the university.

His persistence paid off when the committee provided him with a copy of the Government Order on the fee fixation committee proceedings.

Five-hour inquiry

In November 2017, the DME’s office informed him to accompany the inquiry committee to the college. A five-hour inquiry was held on November 14 and a report was submitted.

Despite his repeated requests and through RTI, the DME did not provide the complainant with a copy of the report.

He has also written to the Governor-Chancellor’s office about his travails and is awaiting a response.

Last Thursday, he finally met the committee’s chairman who told him to bring his daughter as she was a major, Mr. Kantesh said. “I told him as her father I have been the victim and I have filed the complaint, where is the need for me to bring my daughter,” he asked.

“My daughter has chosen a different path. She is studying biotechnology and wants to pursue research. But in the interest of others like her I would like to ensure that the report of the inquiry is made public,” he said.

His demands are: there should be no ambiguity in the fee structure details in the university prospectus; it should contain a break-up of fee as mentioned in the GO; a centralised grievance system for students and parents should be constituted.

IISc, IIT-D chosen for special grants

Vikas Pathak

NEW DELHI, JULY 10, 2018 00:00 IST



Institutions of Eminence list released

Six higher education institutions, including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, the Indian Institutes of Technology at Mumbai and Delhi, and the proposed Jio Institute of the Reliance Foundation, have been named Institutions of Eminence (IoE) by the Centre.

The Jio Institute in Maharashtra — which has been chosen in the greenfield category — is among three private institutions to be granted the status; the Manipal Academy of Higher Education and BITS, Pilani, being the other two.

An empowered committee, under former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami, recommended these institutions.

Three-year window

Mr. Gopalaswami told The Hindu that the greenfield category institutions will be issued letters of intent for three years within which they have to commence academic operations for the notification declaring them IoE to be issued. If they fail, he said, the committee can recommend cancellation of the IoE status. This sets them apart from other institutions. He added that institutions not given the IoE status in this round could apply again till the committee finalised 10 public and 10 private institutions.

Vodafone-Idea merger gets govt’s conditional approval
Idea Will Have To Give A Bank Guarantee Of ₹3,300 Crore

Pankaj.Doval@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:10.07.2018

Ending months of uncertainty, the government on Monday gave a conditional approval to the merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone, a move that will make it the country’s largest telecom company, ahead of Bharti Airtel. The nod for the deal, which has been in the works for over a year, came a day before Vodafone global CEO Vittorio Colao and his successor Nick Read are scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The conditions that need to be met by the two companies include Idea — which will exist after the transaction — giving a bank guarantee of Rs 3,300 crore to the government. Vodafone, which is getting merged, will have to give an undertaking that it will settle all the dues that may appear after merger.

“We have issued a letter on Monday (on conditional approval),” a source told TOI. “As soon as the companies meet the conditions, a final approval will be issued. We expect this to happen soon.”

The deal was announced in January last year and has been going through a series of approvals at various forums. It has already been approved by the Competition Commission of India, Sebi and the stock exchanges, and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). With the telecom department’s approval after the conditions are met, the NCLT will give a final go-ahead to the deal.

The source said that Idea also needs to “replace bank guarantees given to the telecom department by Vodafone” as part of the approval process. “This is also one of the conditions that we have listed, and is part of the M&A process. Any other running dues will also need to be paid,” the source added.

Colao and Read are visiting the country at a time when there is growing suspense over the deal due to the delays. The companies had originally said the deal will go through by the end of June this year, but were still awaiting final clearances.

Sources said Vodafone’s top bosses will also meet telecom minister Manoj Sinha and telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan. Company officials said “not much should be read into the meetings, as they are courtesy calls before Read takes charge from Colao”.

Idea and Vodafone decided to merge their businesses in view of mounting losses and steep competition after the launch of operations by Reliance Jio in September 2016.

IIT-D, IIT-B, IISc granted status of ‘institution of eminence’

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:10.07.2018

Government-run IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore were granted the status of “institution of eminence” along with three private players on Monday giving them complete freedom to run their academic and research programmes in a manner which would help make them among the best in the world.

The private institutes which were also granted the status are BITS-Pilani, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal and Jio Institute of Reliance Foundation, Greater Mumbai.

These institutions are now completely free from the regulations of the University Grants Commission.

While the government set a number of maximum 20 institutions (10 government and 10 private) to be given the status, the empowered experts committee (EEC) were not convinced by the 113 institutions’ application/ vision statement to offer them the status and thus forwarded lesser number of names to the government.

Among the private players, while MAHE and BITS-Pilani are well established institutions with Manipal celebrating its 25th year, the Reliance Foundation’s institution has been shortlisted under the “Greenfield” category, whose vision statement started with “to be the youngest global top 100 universities.”

In all 114 institutions (both public and private) applied after the government announced its decision to accord the status to 20 institutions. A great deal of autonomy is accorded with the status and the government institutions will get multicrore state funding as well.

Of the 114 institutions, EEC found 113 eligible and of that it forwarded less than 20 names to the government. Head of the EEX, former chief election commissioner Gopalaswami said: “We sent more than six names to the government. However, we sent only three private institution names and the number of government institutions were more. But the government to keep a parity chose three each, which is fine.”

While no disclosing the exact number the committee recommended to the government, Gopalaswami said that the other institutions had gaps in different areas that needs to be plugged to be considered for the eminence status. “In any case the government set 20 as the upper limit and not mandatory,” he added .

No free SIM cards for foreign tourists

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: 10.07.2018

The government has decided to discontinue a scheme to provide free SIM cards to foreign tourists arriving in India through the evisa route. The preactivated SIM card was a part of the welcome kit given to foreign tourists upon arrival on Indian shores. Tourism secretary Rashmi Verma said on Monday that the decision was taken because it was unnecessary now.

The scheme was launched in February 2017 by former tourism minister Mahesh Sharma. Verma said foreign tourists tended to use social media apps and with Wi-Fi facilities available at most public places and airports, staying in touch was not difficult. The BSNL SIM cards came with talk time of ₹50 and 50 MB data.

The SIM card had a validity of 30 days and helped foreign tourists contact the 24-hour tourist helpline number available in 12 languages, including Russian, German and Japanese.