Centre designates Daman as headquarters of merged UTs

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday designated Daman as the headquarters of the merged Union Territories of Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

HT Image

The Central government also approved amendments/extension/repeal in legislations and regulations dealing with the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Value Added Tax (VAT) and state excise in a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar said.

These amendments will lead to ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ by way of having common taxation authorities, better delivery of services to citizens by reducing duplication of work and improving administrative efficiency, it said.

These will help in bringing more uniformity in laws relating to GST, VAT and state excise and will also help avoid any legal complications in the levy and collection of these taxes and recovery of arrears, it said.

The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the revised cost estimates (RCE) of over Rs 4,371 crore to establish permanent campuses of new the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) till 2022.

“The Cabinet has approved the RCE for establishment of permanent campuses of six new National Institutes of Technology at a total cost of Rs 4,371.90 crore for the period till 2021-22,” Javadekar said at a press conference.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs also approved shutting down operations of a plant of Hindustan Fluorocarbons Limited (HFL) and closure of the company.

Responding to questions, Javadekar said the government will unveil its plan of action to boost the economy in the Union Budget to be presented on February 1, asserting that economic fundamentals remain very strong.

Responding to a question about the downward revision of India’s growth rate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said the economy is on the path of “revival” and nobody should create a pessimistic view about it. There are ups and downs in the world economy and it reflects on all countries, he said.

Javadekar hit out at parties questioning the National Population Register, saying it was welcomed in the past when the then Congress-led government introduced it, but is being dubbed as “bad” when the NDA regime is repeating it.

He also said the provision of “naturalisation” to grant Indian citizenship to foreign nationals in the principal Citizenship Act of 1955 still remains.

Referring to the origin of the NPR, he pointed out that it was introduced by the Congress-led UPA government in 2010. “Then you all welcomed it. They bring it, it is good. When we bring, it is bad. This is not fair,” he said.