Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

Realism vs egotism

Human problem

Uncertainties in Nepal

By T S Rao

VAT needs simple documentation

By Daya Sagar

Genetic erosion threatens food security

By Dr A K Razdan
and Dr J S Jamwal

EDITORIAL

Realism vs egotism

This is hardly surprising that there has been no tangible breakthrough after the just-concluded two-day meeting of the Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq faction of the Hurriyat Conference in Srinagar to discuss the crucial issue of the reunification of the erstwhile secessionist conglomeration which is currently split in the middle. Although the Mirwaiz has offered to step down from the post of chairman should it be necessary for bringing together the friends turned foes there is nothing new in his offer. For that matter even Syed Ali Shah Geelani has announced that he will not stand on prestige: he is prepared to drop his insistence to continue as chief of the common platform (he has amended his group's constitution in a manner that virtually permits him to hold the office as long as he wants) provided his demand for action against those who have violated its charter is met. Thus there does not seem to be any meeting ground as yet between the two on the real issues that are considered to be stumbling blocks. This is only too well known that Mr Geelani is unyielding in his insistence for action against the People's Conference (if one has understood him correctly he is seeking either an unqualified public apology or expulsion) for its participation in the 2002 Assembly elections in defiance of the decision of the then united Hurriyat Conference. Similarly, he wants those leaders to explain their stand who had not participated in the campaign for mobilising people for boycotting the same electoral exercise. By the People's Conference he undoubtedly means the one that is headed by Mr Bilal Lone, elder son of slain party founder Abdul Ghani Lone, which is constituent of the Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat. Incidentally the leaders against whom Mr Geelani has hurled the charge of not having taken part in the poll-boycott operation are again with the Mirwaiz and have been ex-chairpersons of the formerly combined team. They are namely Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat and Moulvi Abbas Ansari who have made known through their recent utterances that they have no love lost for Mr Geelani.

Notwithstanding the token offers there is, practically speaking, no climb-down from high moral positions taken by the rival factions. The Mirwaiz apparently sees no reason why he should let down those who have stood by him. It is not for nothing that he has laid down the unambiguous condition that in the event of his resignation even Mr Geelani will not become the head of the reunited organisation meaning thereby that a third person acceptable to both of them will have to be found for the job. This hardly bears any reiteration that the original Hurriyat is not divided into just two camps but there are also quite a few of its other one-time important partners like the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) which have quietly withdrawn from its fold. The People's Conference, which is at the centre of the dispute, has at least three versions (Mr Sajjad Lone, younger son of the late Abdul Ghani Lone, has one which he has kept away from both the alliances while two senior leaders of the original party have floated their own banner of the same name and made it part of the Geelani bloc). With the exception of the Jamaat-e-Islami (J&K) and the Mirwaiz's Awami Action Committee there is probably no other party which has not come apart at the centre following cracks in the Hurriyat Conference. One reason most leaders of the Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat feel terribly offended is that Mr Geelani has included some of their past associates in his panel for the purpose of carrying out unity talks.

While there is an unabashed display of egos on one hand it also can't be denied that there are different perceptions about the prevailing scenario in the sub-continent on the other. The Mirwaiz and his team have been more realistic in supporting the peace moves between India and Pakistan (it tripped but once when it was adamant about meeting the Pakistan President before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the former's recent visit to New Delhi). On his part, Mr Geelani has made no secret of his disgust for Pakistan accusing it of having given up the core of its ideology. Of course, the neighbouring country has added another intriguing chapter with its public call to the Hurriyat Conference to reinstate its old structure. What does this mean? Does this confirm that the secessionist components are all handmaidens of Pakistan? How does it enhance their status collectively or individually? Has Pakistan by making such an open appeal not directly interfered in the internal affairs of this country? Why should it fish in the troubled waters of the Jhelum if not with the aim of keeping them on the boil to serve its vested interests in the region? There are relevant questions all round. Unless they are satisfactorily answered it would be premature to predict an early reunion of estranged leaders under one flag.

Human problem

In a country in which crores of people live below the poverty line this is understandable why beggars throng centres of pilgrimage and tourism. They come in the hope of securing some money or food from the members of affluent sections of society. One would like to discount the theory often projected by the Bollywood that they have formed organised groups to carry out their activity. In some cases Mafia dons are shown as dictating their schedule. The fact is that the real life is far tougher and those unable to find jobs or failing to acquire necessary skills for the purpose find in begging an easy and fruitful pursuit. In the process it is possible that they allow themselves to be further exploited by unscrupulous elements: nothing is simpler than taking advantage of human misery. Beggars have invented innovative measures to draw the attention of the people. They seem to think that they will be told off with their targetted booty only if they become incorrigible irritants. As a part of their calculated strategy they would stand outside places of entertainment or eating joints. In certain places one can even see even women with swollen bellys stopping cars and beseeching their occupants for necessary funds in the name of impending childbirths. Why they are not at some government or philanthropic hospital is not difficult to comprehend. Our State is not immune from such goings-on. In fact both in this city, which is the base camp of one of the most revered places of worship, and Srinagar, a launching pad for tourists across the Valley, thousands of beggars can be spotted. They come from every part of the country. According to a report in this newspaper 3000 of them have already arrived in the Summer Capital to "benefit" from the tourist season that has set in. Civic authorities are planning to push them out of municipal limits.

However, for a permanent solution it has to be realised that begging is a curse and affront to human dignity. Every beggar must be told to develop respect for work culture. For that it is essential that official agencies in turn unhesitatingly enlist the active cooperation of bighearted private entrepreneurs.

Uncertainties in Nepal

By T S Rao

The developments of the past few months in Kathmandu indicate that the country is in a flux. The emergency imposed by King Gynanendra on February 1, 2005 managed to manginalise the political parties. But it has failed to consolidate his power in Nepal's polity. The defiance against his rule by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) is still continuing. The international community was not too enthusiastic about King Gynendra's political adventurism. The King's plans to play one big power against the other, in a typical cold war fashion, failed to yield any greater mileage. The Indian denial of military aid to Royal Nepalese Army has in no way enticed China or Pakistan to come into the fray. The Chinese were willing to give a few million yuan as economic aid. As a step in this direction, Lhasa-Kathmandu bus service was started on April 29. The Chinese so far stayed away in extending any military assistance. Many China watchers feel that Beijing does not like to fish in India's backwaters.

The much-awaited Pakistan, to replace India, never moved beyond debating point. It is slowly becoming clear to powers in Kathmandu that Pakistan would not like to get involved in the US disapproved developments in Nepal.

King Gyanendra's plans to divide the Maoists too had not met with any success. According to UNHCR Maoist ranks is swelling in the past three months.

The way things have unfolded in Nepal during the past four years, it appears a qualitative change in country's polity in imminent. Therefore one can visualize four scenarios. First, King Gyanendra consolidates his position by establishing a working relationship with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Such a development assumes that Royal Nepalese Army has acquired the needed capability to defeat the Maoists; and work as per the wishes of the King.

There are two problems in this scenario. According to many Nepal watchers, the RNA is unhappy with the King. Since King Gyanendra assumed throne, are being asked frequently to restore normalcy in the Kingdom than at any time in the past by the King. In addition, the King's actions being disapproved by India and Britain had its own repercussions on RNA. The RNA soldiers, popularly knows as Gorkhas, serve in Indian and British armies; and over the years both the countries have developed pockets of influence. In this situation, Indian and British actions of the past few months are creating new uncertainties.

At another level reports coming from Kathmandu indicate that RNA is running short of arms and ammunition; and at best they have only one-month supply. Therefore, the King Gyanendra achieving a decisive victory over Maoists without military and from external powers seems highly unlikely.

The second scenario could be RNA staging a palace coup and capturing power. This is possible on two counts. King Gyanendra's ascendancy to the throne in 2002 happened in peculiar circumstances. Nepal observers feel that King Gyanendra during his two and half year's rule proved to be not so competent ruler. He alienated both political parties and common man. With the result he has to permanently depend on the RNA to retain his power. Second, reports from Kathmandu also show that the predominant role of RNA in the Nepal's polity is getting slowly eroded due to King's actions.

The RNA seizing power will, however, depend on how the international community, especially Britain and India would view such an action. If they are supportive only RNA can succeed. In addition monarchy enjoys a special position in Nepal's polity. Will RNA be able to tide over the crisis that may erupt in any dethroning of King Gyanendra?

Third scenario could be Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) managing to overthrowing the monarchy and Parliament and coming to power. With 60 to 75 percent of Nepal coming under Maoist influence, it is becoming a highly possible scenario. Besides, Maoists are successful in running a perallel Government in areas where their influence is substantial. With the Nepali middle class reportedly sympathizing with Maoists, the later's clout is increasing in Nepal's polity.

In conservative Nepal, the prospects of a revolution are rather slim. The Maoists, though managed to establish some linkages with other militant organizations in the region, there is no evidence that they have been receiving any militancy hardware or training. Therefore, their capacity to fight the RNA is extremely limited.

Alternatively, Maoists collaborating with RNA or some of the political parties cannot be ruled out at this stage. Some observers are even expecting that King Gyanendra co-opting Maoists in the Government to marginelise political parties like Nepali Congress.

Lastly, with pressures from the international community increasing King Gyanendra may go back to status quo ante. He may reintroduce the multiparty system as was present prior to imposing of emergency on February 1, 2005.

Whatever may be the permutations and combinations that may happen, it is a fact that Nepal's polity is fragmented; and the monarchy is weakened. One need not be surprised if the role of monarchy is further eroded in coming months.

By these extraordinary developments in Nepal India's options are getting narrowed down. The immediate question that New Delhi needs to address is whether it should strengthen King Gyanendra's hands to continue in power or allow the events to take their own course. If the later is going to be the option, India may lave to sensitise the entire neighbourhood.-CNF

VAT needs simple documentation

By Daya Sagar

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) called for 3 day nation wide strike from 31-3-05 opposing the service tax levied on traders and proposed Value Added Tax from April 2005 and Akhilbatiya Beopar Pratinidi Mandal too had called for a nation wide strike on 29-03-05 (the strike did not have much response) And the VAT talks and protests are still on with retailers/traders observing Bharat Bandh on 29-04-05. Some have started complaining of shortage of commodities alleging that some bulk traders have stopped new purchase from with in or outside J&K. At places even the recent normal price increases in pulses like gram, dal and even wheat flour (atta) are being explained to the common man by the trading community as being due to VAT and that appears to be simply for building up social pressure on the Government. Sales tax under VAT on general medicines has been reduced to 4% and hence prices of Medicines should have come down.

Since these days the VAT that has disturbed and confused the common man is being referred to only in respect of general items of trade and consumption, I would like to restrict the discussions only to trade sector and application of the VAT system of taxes in trade. There would have been no much need for such participation had the Government Machinery taken up the subject seriously and carefully as well as had the Striking/Protesting Trading Community expressed their problems and likely damage to consumers in simple manner. And surely this could be done very simply. Ofcourse the under hand trade, under invoicing, printing inflated MRPs and the hidden incomes if find some difficulties under VAT due to need for documentation it can not be taken as an undue problem to trading community from the VAT. Ofcourse rules were already there to check evasion and still it was there; and one could say it could still be there but surely with some increased difficulty.

No duplication of Taxes :

It is all confusion and some trading units are found advocating that with VAT application the prices would go up and there will be duplication of taxes. Where as in simple terms as regards the items in trade under the VAT (Value Added Tax system) the Government has decide to collect the sales tax from the consumer at the final price to the consumer with in the domains where the General Sales Tax applicable for Distributor/Dealer/Consumer transactions within a State.

Better and required approach should be :

Some are giving wrong impressions that it is only in view of VAT that all most items are being subjected to sales tax (they say VAT) where as the fact is that Schedule of items that would attract tax (sales tax) under the system of VAT (value added taxing system) is declared in the same manner as was being done in the past practice of charging of General Sales Tax but ofcourse at only in the first sale itself.

Hence in case some more items have been brought under sales tax (that were exempted earlier) or rate of sales tax has been increased on some items while presenting Budget 2005-06 by J&K Government (other State Governments), a better and required approach would have been to approach the Governments concerned for considering to reduce or remove the sales tax on particular item instead of confusing the majority of petty traders and the consumers in general.

Suggestions taken casually :

Government too has faulted in its duty to counter those who have been terming VAT as extremely Controversial and Harsh. During Zero Hour on 31-03-05, Mr Ali Mohd Sagar suggested in the JK Legislative Assembly that when doubts of people are cleared and infrastructure is raised only then VAT should be implemented. The comments of the Assembly members merited immediate consideration by the Government though the reasoning (militancy) given by one member had no logic (he could better suggest some items that could be exempted from sales tax).

Half hearted efforts

Much time has since been lost. Some half hearted attempts made by the Department of Commercial Taxes (J&K) and media clarifications and advertisements too have not been well worked like it was on 29-04-05 that the Commissioner Commercial Taxes J&K Government issued an advertisement dated 28-04-05 through media notifying three classes of traders for implementation of VAT and although the general message was conveyed the description under category (Class-I) was not carefully written (it said ''That if their daily purchase or sale is to the extent with the J&K Value Added Tax Act, 2005 of Rs 1369.00 they neither have any tax liability nor is it necessary to them to get registered with the Commercial Taxes Department'') and neither any correction or explanation to make it simply understandable was made later on. This does speak of the non seriousness at the level of department concerned.

VAT provides relief to exporters :

Before that also it was on 28 February 2005 that Dy Commissioner Sales Tax (Tax Planning Incharge VAT) issued a advertisement in support of VAT terming it as much simpler, transparent, trader and customer friendly as well as an easy to administer system of taxation. The said advertisement did convey some useful information (like only dealers above a fixed thresh hold limit had to register under VAT, dealers already registered under GST/CST have to move a simple application for registration under VAT, under VAT the GST/CST numbers be replaced by Taxpayer Identification Number-TIN, intrastate purchases made by a registered dealer from another dealer are eligible for input tax credit, VAT also provides relief to exporters as no tax is charged on the commodities exported and credit for input tax in the State is allowed, tax rate slabs are being reduced from 7 to 4 only, under VAT the assessments and almost SELF ASSESSMENTS and hence easier, and ofcourse the dealers will insist on the invoices for taking tax credits but here too some needed seriousness was lacking as it said that ''UNDER VAT ONLY THOSE DEALERS ARE LIABLE TO PAY TAX WHOSE GROSS TURN OVER CROSSES A FIXED THRESHOLD LIMIT (TAXABLE LIMIT) THUS, PROVIDING RELIEF TO THE SMALL AND MARGINAL DEALERS.

Message not Properly Carried :

The message was not correctly worded since the dealer has to pay applicable sales tax under VAT while purchasing depending upon the category of the dealer selling to him and not as per his own category where as sales tax he has to collect from his customer will depend on his (own) category (whether he belongs to less than Rs 5 Lac annual sales turnover category or Rs 5 Lac to under Rs 20 Lac sales turnover category or Rs 20 Lac and above category). Hence surely there have been some drawbacks also at the level of Department of Commercial taxes as regards handling the VAT issue.

No complicated documentation

The operation under VAT for dealers of Category-I (annual sales less than 5 lacs, registration under VAT is voluntary and no sales tax is to be collected from the consumer on the sale made) and Category-2 (annual sales from Rs 5 Lac to under Rs 20 lacs where they have to only obtain Taxpayer Identification Number-TIN, necessarily maintain only purchase record, not charge any sales tax for incremental cost of profit from the consumer and only pay a fixed 1% tax on the actual turnover) is very very simple and no complicated documentation will be needed. Those from Category-I need not take TIN number (will be given if they want) but it has been observed that they are being mis- guided by some whole sale dealers/distributors that no supplies will be made to them unless they obtain TIN number, and this is not true.

Items under Zero Tax group :

Commissioner Commercial Taxes (J&K) issued an advertisement in media on 29 April 05 where in 54 categories of items under schedule A Section 16 (2) Commodities under VAT (0%) have been listed including all those items covered by Jammu & Kashmir General Sales Tax Act 1962. This means all those item that have not been listed under any other category as well as this category but were any time under Zero (O) GST category/group would too be included in Zero Tax category (commissioner of taxes should reconfirm this). Items like Books, journals, bread, charcoal, coarse grains, curd, lassi, buttermilk, separated milk, electrical energy, fire wood, fresh and pasteurized milk, flowers, gur, items covered by PDS (except kerosene), fresh vegetable and fruits, meat/fish/prawn, eggs, poultry, livestock, non judicial stamp paper, postal items, paddy, rice, wheat, pulses, floor, atta, maida, suji, besan, papad, salt including branded, sugar, tobacco, textiles, loi, pattu, handicrafts, hand made Kashmiri/Ladakhi or Basoli Shawls, animals feeds, fish feed, poultry feeds and like are not to attract any sales tax under VAT. Halwai sweets have been subjected to sales tax and instead of protesting against the VAT as a System protest could be made on including Sweets under taxable items. Halwai sweets these days are not only items of common man but some sweets, (methai) could be included in luxury items as well since sweets costing over Rs 250 per Kg have become so common these days due to the use of costly materials and dry fruits.

Genetic erosion threatens food security

By Dr A K Razdan and Dr J S Jamwal

Genetic erosion has long been accepted as major threat to sustainable progress in agriculture production. Plant genetic erosion refers to the loss of genetic diversity in the form of plant genes or genotypes that are of potential or actual agricultural value. The high yielding varieties of rice, wheat and maize etc. displaced a great number of wild relatives and traditional varieties of these and other important foodcrops, a development of which accelerated the decline of genetic diversity. The pressure of increasing population would demand creation of more cultivars with enhanced food and industrial value along with higher yields in the face of emerging and existing environmental stresses viz, biotic such as pathogen or pests and abiotic such as drought or temperature extremes. However it would depend on the existence of genetic diversity. The majority of new high yielding varieties developed till date were themselves based on the germplasm of traditional varieties.

Prior to green revolution, different regions within countries had several favourite varieties which are heterogeneous and served as store house of genetic variability evolved by spontaneous mutation and natural hybridisation under the requirements of ecological diversity. These old traditional varieties had much genetic variation for disease resistance, climatic tolerances etc both within and across the varieties. The flexibility in response to these stresses is increased when there is relatively more genetic diversity. Greater flexibility means greater stability in production as entire fields or crops at landscape level are less likely to be weakened or eliminated by pests, pathogens or extremes of Climate.

The green revolution has resulted in farmers planting fewer varieties of the crops so that they can focus on use of high yielding varieties. Secondly the varieties that are planted have been bred to a high degree of genetic uniformity within each variety. Both of these approaches are a change from the past practice in which farmers planted a large number of different, often locally adapted varieties each of which generally contained a large number of different genotypes. Thus the green revolution has come to be associated with reductions in crop genetic diversity which have implications over the short and the longer term. Over the short term, as more and more farmers plant monocultures of nearly genetically uniform stock which covers a huge area of plants that all respond similarly to stresses resulting in all types of problems with instability in crop yields. Thus while the traditional varieties were more reliable as they were less vulnerable to being eliminated by pathogens or pests and climate anomaly. Besides one major consequence of this genetic uniformity is greater use of pesticides to protect genetically vulnerable crops. Over the long term, increasing reliance on a relatively few varieties lead to loss of well adapted genetically variable varieties through lack of use and such losses are permanent. For example in China, farmers were growing an estimated 10,000 wheat varieties in 1949 but were down to only 1000 by the 1970s and Mexican farmers are raising only 20 percent of maize varieties they cultivated in 1930s. Today less than three percent of 250,000 plant varieties available to agriculture are in use. A mere 12 species provide three quarters of the world's plant based food. This dependence on such a narrow genetic base threatens future food security. In India farmers have planted 3000 different varieties of rice over the past 50 years with varieties grown in a region closely matched to soil, climate and so forth. With the advent of green resolution varieties, this has changed. It is now predicted that 75 percent of all rice fields in India will be planted to just few number of varieties in coming years. Similar kind of monoculture trend is now being witnessed in northern belt of this country particularly Punjab, Haryana and adjoining areas where more than 70 percent of wheat area is under cultivation of single variety namely PBW 343. Similar trends are also witnessed in most regions of the world where green revolution has been adopted.

The apparent danger of losing genetic diversity housed in old varieties which could turn out to be very important for example under conditions of changing and fluctuating climate stresses in dryland region of world. The small, marginal and resource poor farmers of dryland regions are exposed to the risk of crop failures by prevailing water shortages, the usually hot and harsh climates and soils degraded by erosion, deforestation and desertification. It is not surprising that rural people in these dryland regions constitute the poorest of the world's poor, many of them living below poverty line. These marginal regions have not been touched by green revolution which only boosted grain yields where ample water for irrigation was available. Ironically, to a great extent this threat of genetic erosion can be overcome with the help of small farmers in remote areas of the world who benefitted little, if at all from advances in crop breeding.

Over period of thousands of years the dryland crops have developed through selection by farmers themselves, various adaptive mechanisms for stress tolerance and adaptation because they have been around much longer and have survived periods of very harsh environments. For example; land races in farmer's field and population of crop wild relatives in low rainfall and drought-affected sites are natural reservoirs of genes for drought tolerance but they are now increasingly threatened by genetic erosion. To save the rich genetic diversity and make it available to researchers and breeders, serious efforts should be carried out for large scale collection and conservation of genetic resources in different crop plants both ex-situ in gene banks and in-situ in original habitat to meet present and future crop improvement needs.

To bring crop diversity back to landscapes, innovative plant breeders in developing countries are working directly with farmers in participating breeding programmes to evaluate, select and improve locally adopted crop varieties while maintaining robust levels of genetic diversity. Our concentrated efforts should be in such a fashion to breed and use crop plants in ways that keep them genetically diverse rather than degrade it. The bottom line is that we have to share both economic benefits of genetic diversity and obligation for protecting it. Additional steps need to be taken to reform policy and practices that work against genetic diversity otherwise our food supply increasingly vulnerable and has become more volatile as large proportions of crop fail or do very well uniformly both over the short and long run.

(The authors are associated with SKUAST-J, DLRSS, Dhainsar Baribrahmana Jammu)