PUNJAB

Liquor to soon become cheaper in Punjab bars

There’s good news for alcohol lovers in Punjab. It will soon cost less to have your favourite tipple in bars as the Punjab government has decided to slash licence fee and assessment fee for bars of hotels and restaurants. The Punjab cabinet on Monday approved the Punjab Excise Policy 2021-22.

Giving relief to hospitality industry, which suffered heavy losses due to Covid, the state government has reduced the annual fixed licence fee for bars of hotels and restaurants by around 30%. The fee on consumption of liquor (assessed fee) has also been reduced. The annual licence fee for marriage palaces has been reduced by 20%.

Through the new policy, the Punjab government aims at generating Rs 7,002 crores as excise revenue as against the current year’s revenue of Rs 5,794 crore, showing an increase of 20%.

With an aim to provide relief to retail licensees and to keep the momentum of the liquor trade, the Punjab government has decided to continue with the provision of renewal of vends. The government will renew all existing vends, subject to lifting of additional liquor by the licensees, ensuring a minimum growth of revenue of 12% during 2020-21.

The policy is likely to bring stability in the liquor trade and will also generate additional revenue for the state exchequer. The government has not increased taxes on country liquor, maintaining the last year liquor prices for the consumers. This would help the sale of legal liquor and also aid the department to combat sale of cheap illicit liquor, hazardous to life and health of consumers. There would be no increase in the sale price of liquor.

Under the new policy, the government has proposed to collect the additional revenue by increasing the quota of Punjab Medium Liquor (PML) by 12%, Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) by 6% and beer by 4% over last year, respectively. In a first, the department has proposed to impose a quota for foreign liquor in municipal corporation areas and A class municipalities.

The Punjab government has also decided to place a moratorium on setting up of new distilleries, breweries or bottling plants. It has also decided no new letter of intent (LoIs) will be issued for establishing manufacturing units in the current year. The government has also made it mandatory for the LoIs issued for setting up bottling plants to complete their project by March 31, 2023.

INTERNATIONAL

USA Restores Relations with Palestine

The US Presidential Administration announced that it will resume relations with the Palestinians and provide assistance to Palestine refugees.

This is a reversal of the shutdown of the Donald Trump administration and a key element of its new support for the two-state solution to the decades-long conflict that Israel and Palestine have agreed to.

Palestine is officially recognized as a Palestinian state by the United Nations and other entities.

It is a legally sovereign state in West Asia. Although its administrative center is currently located in Ramallah, the West Bank (on the border with Israel and Jordan) and the Gaza Strip (on the border with Israel and Egypt) have Jerusalem as the designated capital.

Since 1948, the entire territory claimed by the State of Palestine has been occupied by Egypt and Jordan, and then by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967.

NATIONAL

New Central Bank Digital Currency India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is studying whether India needs a new central bank digital currency (CBDC) and is exploring ways to implement digital currency operations.

RBI’s statement is based on the popularity of private digital currencies, virtual currencies and encrypted currencies.

These currencies cannot be used in India because regulators and governments have been skeptical of the risks associated with these currencies.

Therefore, the Reserve Bank of India is exploring the possibility of requiring a digital version of fiat currency.

Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is legal tender and is a central bank liability in digital form. Digital currencies are priced in sovereign currencies.

Integrated Weapons System Design Centre in DRDO

The Vice President of India established an Integrated Weapon System Design Center at the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam missile complex in DRDO, Hyderabad.

It is said that the Integrated Weapon System Design facility will enhance the design and development capabilities of command and control systems for surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems and ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems.

The centre will focus on the overall system design and evaluation methods of advanced missile systems, and will help improve the performance of the missile.

National Mission for Edible Oil Agriculture Ministry

The Ministry of Agriculture has proposed the establishment of a National Mission for Edible Oil to increase domestic supply and reduce dependence on imports. It has been proposed to carry out the mission within the next five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25.

NMEO is composed of the following three Sub-Missions, which aims to increase the production of oilseeds and edible oil from the following three aspects:

Primary sources-it includes Annual Crops, Plantation Crops and Edible TBO

Secondary sources-it includes Rice bran oil and Cotton seed oil.

Consumers are aware of keeping the consumption of edible oil constant at 19.00 kg per person per year.

The purpose of this mission is to increase the output of oilseeds from 30.88 tons to 47.8 million tons. It plans to produce 7.00 to 11 million tons of edible oil from Primary sources by 2024-25. In addition, the edible oil from Secondary sources will increase from 3.50 times to 7 million tons.

Gross enrolment ratio of girls in schools improved from 2014-15 to 2018-19: WCD

The gross enrolment ratio of girls in schools at secondary level has improved from 2014-15 to 2018-19, and there have been promising trends of improvement in sex ratio at birth.

Sharing the achievements of the government’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Andolan (BBBP) ahead of National Girl Child Day on Sunday, the ministry said the scheme has resulted in increased awareness and sensitisation of the masses regarding prevalence of gender bias and role of community in eradicating it.

In a statement, it said the gross enrolment ratio of girls in schools at secondary level has improved from 77.45 (2014-15) to 81.32 (2018-19-provisional figures) as per UDISE-data.

Some districts which had very low SRB in 2014-15 have shown huge improvement after implementation of the scheme such as Mau (Uttar Pradesh) from 694 (2014-15) to 951 (2019-20),Â Karnal (Haryana) from 758 (2014-15) to 898 (2019-20), Mahendergarh (Haryana) from 791 (2014-15) to 919 (2019-20), Rewari (Haryana) from 803 (2014-15) to 924 (2019-20), and Patiala (Punjab) from 847 (2014-15) to 933 (2019-20).

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