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Scroll.in
2 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Calcutta HC directs Centre to resume MNREGS in West Bengal after three-year halt
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed the Union government to resume implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, or MNREGS, in West Bengal from August 1, Live Law reported. The Union Rural Development Ministry suspended MGNREGS funding to West Bengal in March 2022, citing widespread irregularities and alleged violations of the scheme's implementation rules by the state government. West Bengal received Rs 7,507.8 crore in the financial year 2021-'22 under MGNREGS but has received no funds in the following three financial years, the Hindustan Times reported. On Wednesday, a division bench comprising Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) was hearing a case on the non-payment of MGNREGS dues to daily wage labourers after the Union government's allegations. The bench said that the Union and state governments may impose special conditions to prevent irregularities that marred the scheme's implementation, but it must be restarted prospectively. The court said that it was not in dispute that certain irregularities have been pointed out by the Centre in the disbursement of wages under the MGNREGS, according to PTI. While the Centre retains authority to investigate alleged misappropriations, this does not justify an indefinite suspension of the program, added the bench. 'All these allegations are from before 2022, you do whatever you want, but implement the scheme,' it further said. MNREGS was introduced in 2005 by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance and is aimed at enhancing the livelihood security of households in rural areas. The scheme guarantees 100 days of unskilled work annually for every rural household that wants it, covering all districts in the country.
Borneo Post
4 days ago
- Business
- Borneo Post
Amir Hamzah: RON95 subsidy cut to come first, carbon tax expected in 2026
Amir Hamzah says the government will prioritise the rationalisation of RON95 petrol subsidy this year before introducing a carbon tax in 2026. – Bernama photo KUALA LUMPUR (June 17): The government will prioritise the rationalisation of RON95 petrol subsidy this year before introducing a carbon tax in 2026, said Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan. He said Malaysia must first address the issue of fuel subsidies, particularly those involving the energy sector, before implementing the carbon tax. The government had previously announced plans to roll out a carbon tax targeting the iron, steel, and energy industries by 2026, as outlined in Budget 2025. 'As we embark on this transition, we must ensure that no unintended consequences are embedded within our system. For instance, Malaysia has yet to implement a carbon tax as part of its policy framework. While it is scheduled for rollout by 2026, there are important precursor steps we must take,' he added. 'One major issue is the existing distortions in the system, especially the subsidies provided to the energy sector. A key objective now is to begin scaling back these subsidies. It doesn't make sense to impose taxes on one side while simultaneously providing subsidies for petrol, diesel, and other fuels,' he continued. Amir Hamzah made these remarks during a session titled 'Delivering Malaysia's Energy Transition', where he was a panellist alongside Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Energy Transition and Water Transformation (PETRA), Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir. The session was chaired by Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, a senior independent and non-executive director of IOI Corporation Bhd. He also emphasised that subsidy rationalisation is a critical step toward establishing a strong foundation for building sustainable mechanisms and policy frameworks. 'As a result, we can expect the introduction of structured measures, including climate action frameworks, robust measurement tools, and ultimately, the implementation of a carbon tax to support these initiatives. 'If we want this transition to be sustainable and impactful, the entire system must respond. It cannot be driven by isolated announcements or standalone policies. The challenge for the government is to tie everything together coherently and effectively,' Amir Hamzah added. Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the adjustments involving the price of RON95 petrol would not affect 85 to 90 per cent of the population. Anwar said the government's move towards subsidy rationalisation is a critical step to ensure national resources are channelled effectively to benefit the lower-income group. Amir Hamzah economy Energy Asia RON95 subsidy rationalisation
Politico
4 days ago
- Business
- Politico
Congress gets into the global tech tax battle
With help from Aaron Mak There's been a high-stakes global tax fight over tech for a decade, with billions of dollars at stake for leading U.S. companies. The fight is over digital services taxes — fees charged on search engines, online marketplaces and social media services — which more than 30 countries around the world have imposed or approved since 2016. Now, Congress is pushing a very Trumpian way to fight back: a revenge tax. The proposal for the tax, included in the reconciliation bill moving on Capitol Hill, is upsetting U.S. allies, foreign companies and American business lobbyists. And although U.S. tech companies would benefit from the measure, it's not clear that the industry even wants this solution. The argument is raising questions over what's possible — and wise — when it comes to the U.S. fighting overseas tech regulation. American tech companies hate digital services taxes, and have openly asked for help in fighting them. Six industry groups, including the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Consumer Technology Association and the Information and Technology Industry Council, wrote on June 3 to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. The groups called for 'decisive action' on 'discriminatory' digital services taxes. In particular, the letter pointed to Canada's newly imposed DST that applies a 3 percent levy on revenues from some digital services, and the U.K.'s tax, which imposes a 2 percent levy on similar revenues, saying the two together 'represent the largest burden on U.S. firms and the U.S. Treasury, costing billions of dollars in lost revenue.' President Donald Trump vowed to respond to digital services taxes with tariffs and other tools in a February memo, writing: 'American businesses will no longer prop up failed foreign economies through extortive fines and taxes.' Trump also called for a possible renewal of unfair trade probes from his first term into countries that impose DSTs, including France, Austria, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. As that happens, Congress has entered the fray with a remedy. Deep inside the 1,000-plus-page megabill passed by the House lies the 'revenge tax,' also known as Section 899 — a provision that would target countries with tax policies the U.S. says are unfair to Americans. Those include the digital services tax that applies to online business, as well as another mechanism known as the undertaxed profits rule, which some countries could use to tax U.S.-based businesses under a global tax treaty signed by more than 140 countries. The measure will allow the U.S. to impose higher taxes — up to 20 percentage points phased in over four years — on foreign companies, investors and individuals from countries that impose those 'unfair taxes' on American business interests. Bessent recently told Congress, 'This bill will allow us to prevent our corporate revenues from being drained into foreign treasuries — and that is in the hundreds of billions of dollars.' This revenge tax has scared foreign business leaders, especially from Canada, which is set to collect its first digital services tax payment on June 30. Gaphel Kongtsa, director of international policy for the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said he and some 30 business leaders spent last week lobbying the Senate against the 'revenge tax.' Kongtsa said his message to Congress is twofold: First, Canada's DST is unpopular and a new government there may roll it back. And second, the U.S. tax measure could deter Canadian investment and further destabilize trade relationships at a time when American and Canadian leaders are working on a trade deal that could include lifting the digital levy. 'We feel like there's ways to resolve this problem without Section 899,' he said, adding, 'what we don't want is to shift what is now a trade war into a capital war.' Other global industry groups are weighing in as well. The Global Business Alliance, representing 200 major international companies including Taiwanese chip giant TSMC and Dutch ASML, met with some 60 offices in Congress last week, according to its president Jonathan Samford. The group put out a report last week finding Section 899 could eliminate up to 700,000 U.S. jobs. A tax expert from Japan, granted anonymity to speak freely, said leading companies from his country also hit the Hill last week to press against the revenge tax. The overseas tax issue certainly has the American tech industry's attention — but conversations with the groups that signed the June 3 letter show they have mixed feelings on retaliating against DSTs via Congress. The CTA has not commented on Section 899. Nor has the CCIA, although it said it is urging American trade officials 'to negotiate a resolution to this trade dispute before the end of the month.' The ITI has yet to weigh in on the megabill measure either; its most recent statement once again asked the White House to act against Canada's DST 'and ultimately secure its withdrawal.' The long-term projected effects of Section 899 are mixed. An estimate of the bill's effect by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation found it would at first raise tax revenue in the U.S., but would likely lead to lower tax revenues within eight years because it would drive foreign investors away. Adam Michel, a tax expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, said he could see a world where the 'revenge' portion of Section 899 scares countries into removing their digital services taxes. 'But if it doesn't have the intended effect of changing foreign tax policy,' he said, 'then you're left with both the original bad taxes and a new very destructive tax on top of it.' The Wall Street Journal pushed back against what it called 'a freakout' over Section 899. It said in an editorial the retaliatory tax is not a 'blunt-force protectionist tool', and that it leaves time for other countries to negotiate their taxes down. What's next? Kongtsa, from Canada's Chamber of Commerce, thinks Ottawa should make a strategic concession on the DST: He says he hopes Canada will drop the tax as part of negotiations with the U.S. and Mexico to review the USMCA agreement hammered out in Trump's first administration. For the House Ways and Means Committee that passed Section 899 in the first place, perhaps that was the whole point, according to a recent statement from its chair, Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.). 'If these countries withdraw these taxes and decide to behave, we will have achieved our goal,' he said. Tech execs get even closer to the Pentagon Just how close is the Trump administration to Palantir? Apparently, when a group of new tech executives joined the Army Reserve, it was Palantir's idea. On Friday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George swore four tech executives into the U.S. Army Reserve: Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, Meta CTO Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth, OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil and Thinking Machines adviser Bob McGrew. POLITICO's Christine Mui spoke to George's communications adviser, Col. Dave Butler, over the weekend for the California Decoded newsletter, and he told her the idea came from Sankar. 'Shyam, in his overwhelming patriotism came to us, and said 'I want to join the Army. I want to wear the cloth of the nation. Just doing what I can do to help from Palantir isn't enough,'' Butler said. 'Then he said, 'I've recruited three other guys to come with me.'' Sankar and his associates will serve as lieutenant colonels, but won't be required to resign their corporate jobs. They will advise the military on issues like recruiting high-skilled workers and integrating commercial technology. The appointments are part of a new military initiative known as Detachment 201, which seeks to retain tech executives for guidance. Sankar's role in driving the appointments is notable given Palantir's increasing involvement with the administration. Co-founder Peter Thiel was one of Trump's earliest backers from the tech industry. Trump tapped the company to help implement his March executive order to augment data sharing across agencies, potentially providing it extensive access to Americans' personal information. Microsoft fortifies European 'cloud sovereignty' The European Union just got a little closer to keeping control over its troves of data. Microsoft announced new features on Monday enabling European cloud clients to better supervise their data, as Mathieu Pollet reports for POLITICO EU. The upgrades include a new system called Data Guardian, which ensures that only Microsoft employees residing in Europe can remotely access cloud systems in the area, building on the company's previous 'sovereign cloud' initiatives. This raft of new cloud features comes as the EU works toward 'technological sovereignty,' a term that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen began using in 2019 for her strategy to turbocharge the union's innovation and help it compete with the dominant American and Chinese tech players. The EU appointed Finland's Henna Virkkunen as its inaugural tech sovereignty commissioner in December. Von der Leyen's vision has gained momentum over the past year, especially as the Trump administration gets pushy on international trade. Yet practical obstacles still stand in the way given the extent to which the EU currently depends on foreign tech. Notably, the data in the new system is still being managed by Microsoft, an American company. The European Commission released an International Digital Strategy in early June emphasizing the need to strengthen transnational partnerships, especially given 'the superior ability of the US to innovate, scale-up globally and succeed in the tech sector.' post of the day THE FUTURE IN 5 LINKS Stay in touch with the whole team: Aaron Mak (amak@ Mohar Chatterjee (mchatterjee@ Steve Heuser (sheuser@ Nate Robson (nrobson@ and Daniella Cheslow (dcheslow@
Economic Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
War, trade and Air India crash cast cloud over Paris Air Show
The Paris Air Show opens amidst a complex backdrop of war, tariffs, and the Air India crash, overshadowing the usual Airbus-Boeing rivalry. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg cancelled his appearance due to the 787 Dreamliner crash investigation. Trump's tariffs and supply chain issues further complicate matters for the aerospace industry, even as military hardware takes center stage due to global conflicts. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads War, tariffs and the Air India crash will cast a shadow over the Paris Air Show as the aerospace industry's biggest annual gathering opens on than 2,400 companies from 48 countries are showing off their hardware at the week-long event at Le Bourget airfield on the outskirts of sales rivalry between Airbus and Boeing usually drives the headlines as the world's top civilian planemakers announce many of their biggest orders at the air this year's event "is much more complex", said Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury, who also chairs the board of the Gifas association of French aerospace firms that organises the biennial list of challenges is war in Ukraine is stretching into its fourth year and there are fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched strikes on Iran on Friday, disrupting commercial flights across the world economy is expected to slow sharply after US President Donald Trump launched his tariff blitz in Boeing is facing a new crisis after Thursday's crash of a 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India in the city of Ahmedabad, which killed at least 265 people on board and on the chief executive Kelly Ortberg cancelled plans to attend the Paris Air Show to focus on the investigation into the to the tragedy, Boeing had been making progress under a new leadership as the US company sought to restore trust after a series of safety and quality and its European rival, Airbus, have also been dealing with delays in delivering aircraft due to supply chain President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught has added to the issues facing the industry, which relies on a global supply imposed 10 percent tariffs on US imports of goods from nearly every country in April, and steeper levies on dozens of countries could kick in next Trump administration is also mulling whether to impose sector-specific tariffs of between 10 and 20 percent on civil aircraft and heads of Airbus and Boeing have both called for tariffs to return to zero as had been the case since a 1979 agreement."The entire Western aerospace industry considers that would be the best that could happen," said a recent interview with trade journal Aviation Week, Ortberg warned that that tariffs are an added cost for Boeing, which has been financially weakened in recent years by production "not in a position to pass those (costs) along to our customers," he told Aviation Week. "I'm hopeful that, as each of these country-by-country negotiations resolve, those tariffs will go away in the long run."The tariff problems come as the industry has yet to fully recover from effects of the Covid pandemic on its supply is having trouble getting enough fuel-efficient engines for its top-selling A320 family of single-aisle jets, holding back the delivery of around 40 main bottleneck is a lack of toilets for widebody aircraft, said Christian Scherer, the head of Airbus's commercial aircraft Paris Air Show is also about showing off the latest military hardware, at a time of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle countries are boosting defence budgets in the face of the Ukraine war and fears about Trump's commitment to the NATO alliance."The geostrategic environment has led us to bolster this aspect which was in the background in previous years," said Gifas head Frederic 75 companies related to weapons production will be participating at the show, with military jets, helicopters and drones to be Martin's F-35 fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter will be featured, along with the Rafale produced by France's Dassault Israeli companies -- fewer than in the past -- are expected to have displays after a French court rejected a bid by NGOs to ban them over their alleged role in the Gaza conflict.
Int'l Business Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
War, Trade And Air India Crash Cast Cloud Over Paris Air Show
War, tariffs and the Air India crash will cast a shadow over the Paris Air Show as the aerospace industry's biggest annual gathering opens on Monday. More than 2,400 companies from 48 countries are showing off their hardware at the week-long event at Le Bourget airfield on the outskirts of Paris. The sales rivalry between Airbus and Boeing usually drives the headlines as the world's top civilian planemakers announce many of their biggest orders at the air show. But this year's event "is much more complex", said Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury, who also chairs the board of the Gifas association of French aerospace firms that organises the biennial event. The list of challenges is growing. Russia's war in Ukraine is stretching into its fourth year and there are fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched strikes on Iran on Friday, disrupting commercial flights across the region. The world economy is expected to slow sharply after US President Donald Trump launched his tariff blitz in April. And Boeing is facing a new crisis after Thursday's crash of a 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India in the city of Ahmedabad, which killed at least 265 people on board and on the ground. Boeing chief executive Kelly Ortberg cancelled plans to attend the Paris Air Show to focus on the investigation into the crash. Prior to the tragedy, Boeing had been making progress under a new leadership as the US company sought to restore trust after a series of safety and quality lapses. Boeing and its European rival, Airbus, have also been dealing with delays in delivering aircraft due to supply chain issues. US President Donald Trump's tariff onslaught has added to the issues facing the industry, which relies on a global supply chain. Trump imposed 10 percent tariffs on US imports of goods from nearly every country in April, and steeper levies on dozens of countries could kick in next month. The Trump administration is also mulling whether to impose sector-specific tariffs of between 10 and 20 percent on civil aircraft and parts. The heads of Airbus and Boeing have both called for tariffs to return to zero as had been the case since a 1979 agreement. "The entire Western aerospace industry considers that would be the best that could happen," said Faury. In a recent interview with trade journal Aviation Week, Ortberg warned that that tariffs are an added cost for Boeing, which has been financially weakened in recent years by production problems. We're "not in a position to pass those (costs) along to our customers," he told Aviation Week. "I'm hopeful that, as each of these country-by-country negotiations resolve, those tariffs will go away in the long run." The tariff problems come as the industry has yet to fully recover from effects of the Covid pandemic on its supply chain. Airbus is having trouble getting enough fuel-efficient engines for its top-selling A320 family of single-aisle jets, holding back the delivery of around 40 aircraft. The main bottleneck is a lack of toilets for widebody aircraft, said Christian Scherer, the head of Airbus's commercial aircraft division. The Paris Air Show is also about showing off the latest military hardware, at a time of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. European countries are boosting defence budgets in the face of the Ukraine war and fears about Trump's commitment to the NATO alliance. "The geostrategic environment has led us to bolster this aspect which was in the background in previous years," said Gifas head Frederic Parisot. Some 75 companies related to weapons production will be participating at the show, with military jets, helicopters and drones to be displayed. Lockheed Martin's F-35 fifth-generation stealth multirole fighter will be featured, along with the Rafale produced by France's Dassault Aviation. Nine Israeli companies -- fewer than in the past -- are expected to have displays after a French court rejected a bid by NGOs to ban them over their alleged role in the Gaza conflict. Delays in the supply of engines has slowed Airbus's delivery of aircraft AFP
