Mumbai : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday said that the first meeting of the advisory committee on RERA will take place soon. He said this while talking to reporters at India Economic Summit 2018 on RERA completing a year.
Puri said, “There was some tweaking by some states in case of RERA.” This tweaking had worked for those states. He suggested that no peice of legislation should be judged on its first year.
Puri felt that role of RERA has been encouraging. He stressed that the teething issues that emerged in this one year has helped differentiate problems as pre-RERA and post RERA era issue.
He further said, “I am going to take the first meeting of the advisory committee on RERA.” Commenting about the unsold inventories, he stated that this situation has cropped as there was no RERA. “For 70 years there has not been a regulator and it is a criminal negligent.”
Talking about Energy Conservation Building Code 2017, he added there is a perception that energy conversation mechanism increases cost, which is not true. He added that green initiatives have to be used so that the future generation does not suffer.
Meanwhile, he added that his ministry is going to Cabinet in a day or two with a plan to embrace global housing construction technology and learn about challenges in the space. “We will be calling companies across the world to participate in this fascinating exercise,” he added.
Assam Finance Minister questions ‘inequality’ in northeast peoples’ lives
Mumbai: Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday questioned the “inequality” in the lives of the people of North East states, while asserting the importance of Central government schemes. Sarma was speaking at India Economic Summit 2018 being held at the Bombay Stock Exchange here. “You have (in the Constitution) Schedule 1 – List 1, List 2 and List 3. Now health is a state subject. Karnataka is capable of launching a scheme like Ayushman Bharat and individuals there can access insurance cover. Can a state like Nagaland launch an insurance scheme of that magnitude without the Centre’s support?” he questioned.
The Ayushman Bharat- National Health Protection Scheme is a Union government initiative that seeks to provide health insurance coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family to 10 crore families. He said that the people of Nagaland, or Assam, were paying the same amount of tax as those of Karnataka. “Why inequality in their lives? I am also paying the same tax, irrespective of geographical boundaries,” he added.
Sarma questioned if states in the northeast or Uttarakhand would have access to an all weather road without the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). “The relationship between the Centre and states on the political front is clear and there is no scope of interpretation. But the economic relationship is still evolving,” he said.
“It is a hard task and I believe, in India, the relation between the states and the Centre on all the three lists needs a relook,” he said. He further said that while the 14th Finance Commission raised the states’ share in the divisible tax pool to 42 per cent from the earlier 32 per cent, the onus of many Central sector schemes was shifted to the states.
“This (15th) Finance Commission has to make certain things very clear. What are central schemes? Whether the Centre is allowed to change the goal post in between?” he said.
He added that the Centre and states should come face to face and have an interaction and try to create a new India without conflicts between the states and the Centre. Former Jammu and Kashmir finance minister Haseeb Drabu, who was also present at the summit, mooted the idea of redesigning the framework of federalism in the country, by changing it from sharing of taxes to sharing of resources. “I think the time has come (to change) from tax sharing federalism to a resource sharing federalism,” he said.
He added that there was nothing in the Constitution that prevented it from changing the framework of federalism from sharing of taxes to sharing of resources. Time has changed, the economic regime has changed, India has changed. Policy making on federal finance has got stuck somewhere in the 1950s. We need to re-examine the entire process,” Drabu said.
When the Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission, N K Singh, who was sitting in the audience, was asked to share his views, he said, “One of the terms of reference of the Finance Commission directly relates to the GST (Goods and Services Tax) and therefore in addressing them, we believe an engagement with the GST Council would be purposeful.” When asked if the Finance Commission had a say in sharing of resources and not just taxes, Singh said, “The Constitution does not inhibit us. These are suggestions we definitely value.”