Month: Nov 2016

Happy Bhai Dooj

Posted on by Business So Simple in Miscellaneous




Bhai Dooj(भाई दूज) / Bhau-Beej / Bhai Tika / Bhai Phonta(ভাইফোঁটা) is a festival celebrated by Hindus of India and Nepal on the second lunar day of Shukla Paksha (bright fortnight) in the Vikram Samvat Hindu calendar month of Kartika.[3] It is the last day of the five-day-long Diwali or Tihar festival.
The celebrations of this day are similar to the festival of Raksha Bandhan. On this day, brothers get gifts from sisters.
In souther part of the country, the day is celebrated as Yama Dwitiya.

Regional names

The festival is known as:
  • Bhai Dooj (Hindi:भाई दूज) in entire Northern part of India, observed on the last day of the five-day Diwali festival. This is also the second day of the Vikrami Samvat New Year, the calendar followed in Northern India (including Kashmir), which starts from the lunar month of Kārtika. The first day of this New Year is observed as Govardhan Pūja.
  • Bhai Tika (Nepali:भाई टीका) in Nepal, where it is the most important festival after Dashain (Vijaya Dashmi / Dussehra). Observed on the third day from Tyohar festival, it is widely celebrated by Newari, Maithali, Tharu, Bahun and Chhetri people. Also known as Bhai Dooj in Nepal, too.
  • Bhai Phonta (Bengali:ভাই ফোঁটা) in Bengal and it takes place every year on the first or the second day of the Kali Puja festival.
  • Bhai Bij, Bhau Beej, or Bhav Bij (Marathi : भाऊबीज) amongst the Gujarati, Marathi and Konkani-speaking communities in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka.
  • Another name for the day is Yamadwitheya or Yamadvitiya, after a legendary meeting between Yama the god of Death and his sister Yamuna (the famous river) on Dwitheya (the second day after new moon).
  • Other names include Bhatru Dviteeya, or Bhatri Ditya.
According to a popular legend in Hindu mythology, after slaying the evil demon Narkasur, Lord Krishna visited his sister Subhadra who gave him a warm welcome with sweets and flowers. She also affectionately applied tilak on Krishna’s forehead. Some believe this to be the origin of the festival.



The ceremony


On the day of the festival, sisters invite their brothers for a sumptuous meal often including their favorite dishes/sweets. The procedure may be different in bihar and central india. The whole ceremony signifies the duty of a brother to protect his sister, as well as a sister’s blessings for her brother.
Carrying forward the ceremony in traditional style, sisters perform aarti for their brother and apply a red tika on the brother’s forehead. This tika ceremony on the occasion of Bhai Bij signifies the sister’s sincerest prayers for the long and happy life of her brother and treat them with gifts. In return brothers bless their sisters and may treat them also with gifts or cash.
As it is customary in Haryana, Maharashtra to celebrate the auspicious occasion of Bhau-beej, women who do not have a brother worship the moon god instead. They apply mehendi on girls as their tradition.
The sister whose brother lives far away from her and can not go to her house, sends her sincerest prayers for the long and happy life of her brother through the moon god. She performs aarti for the moon. This is the reason why children of Hindu parents affectionately call the moon Chandamama (Chanda means moon and mama means mother’s brother).

The celebration


Bhai Phonta in West Bengal is celebrated with much splendor. The ceremony is marked with many rituals along with a grand feast arranged for the brothers.
The festival of Bhai Bij is popular in Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa and is celebrated with great fervour and gaiety. Brothers and sisters look forward to the occasion with immense enthusiasm. To add charm to the occasion, Bhai Bij gifts are exchanged between brothers and sisters as a token of love and appreciation.
Bhav Bij is a time for family reunions as all brothers and sisters in the family get together. Close relatives and friends are also invited to celebrate the Bhav Bij in many families.
Special dishes for the festival include the Maharashtra sweet called basundi poori or kheerni poori.On this occasion sisters give gifts to their brothers.

Bhaitika in Nepal

Bhaitika in Nepal is also known as Bhaitihar meaning tihar of brothers. On this day, sisters pray to Yamraj for her brother’s long life and prosperity.[4] Sisters put seven colored long tika on forehead of their brothers.

GST Updates (01 Nov 2016)

Posted on by Business So Simple in Miscellaneous


GST rates: Amit Mitra blames Centre for concealing service tax payer data

Tue, Nov 01 2016.
In a letter to Arun Jaitley, West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra blames the Centre for concealing the existing service tax payer base from the states
The sharing of administrative powers between the Centre and the states for controlling traders and service tax payers in a GST regime has been a point of contention between both for a long time.
New Delhi: In another signal of the growing trust deficit between the states and the Centre, West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra has blamed the Centre for concealing the existing service tax payer base from the states.
The sharing of administrative powers between the Centre and the states for controlling traders and service tax payers in a goods and services tax (GST) regime has been a point of contention between both for a long time. Many methods of sharing these powers have been proposed and discarded over the last few weeks in the meetings of the GST council.
In a letter to Union finance minister Arun Jaitley ahead of the crucial GST council meet on 3-4 November, Mitra wrote that he was surprised about the data provided about tax payer base in services provided by the GST council secretariat.
“The minutes of the 1st and the 2nd GST council meeting clearly records a tax base of around 11 lakh for service tax payers. When we referred to the report on dual control of the empowered committee of 2014, the service tax base mentioned was around 9 lakh. Suddenly, we find that the service tax payers number has escalated to 30.5 lakh out of which 26.41 lakh are shown as active tax payers,” Mitra wrote in letter dated 28 October.
“This implies that the service tax base has grown 3 times over 2 years. What is even more surprising is that even a month ago this fact was not told to the states,” he wrote, adding that the figures seem an afterthought surfacing only after the issue of dual control was discussed in the last GST council meeting held on 18-19 October.
Mint has reviewed a copy of the letter. Emails to Mitra and revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia have not elicited a response yet.
Initially, it was agreed that the Centre will control all the existing 11 lakh service tax dealers. For goods traders, states were given administrative control over those with an annual revenue threshold of less than Rs.1.5 crore with a sharing mechanism between the Centre and the states to be worked out for traders above this threshold.
However, states later opposed the Centre’s exclusive control over service tax payers. They sought control over the big service tax payers while some also pointed out that some of these service tax payers already are under the VAT (value-added tax) net—for example restaurants.
In his letter, Mitra also pointed out that the disaggregated data of VAT, excise and service tax base based on thresholds of Rs.1.5 crore and 20 lakh has not been shared with the states so far. He also added that the states are likely to get the updated data only by 1 November which leaves them only a day to deliberate before the GST council meeting.
Mitra’s letter comes close on the heels of Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac expressing concerns over the rate structure and the tax rates under GST as proposed by the Centre.
With states hardening their stand on these remaining important issues, the Centre is racing against time to meet the 1 April 2017 deadline for the implementation of GST. The Centre is hoping to resolve all these issues by the third week of November so that the central GST law and the integrated GST law can receive Parliament’s nod in the upcoming winter session(http://www.livemint.com/)