Report on the National Webinar on Urban Development and Tax Policies: An Interplay
Centre for Law & Urban Development had organized a National Webinar on ‘Urban Development and Tax Policies: An Interplay’ in collaboration with the Centre for Tax Laws, National Law University Delhi. The guest speakers for the webinar were Dr. Paramita Majumdar and Mr. Dhananjay Singh.
Dr. Paramita Majumdar holds an M.Phil and Ph.D. from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and has more than 20 years of experience of working with governments, international development agencies like the UN Women, UNDP, DFID, ADB and other NGOs as a Consultant/researcher/evaluator. Currently, she is a freelancer conducting research and consultancy assignments related to gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting issues.
Mr. Dhananjay Singh is an officer of the Indian Revenue Service -Customs & Indirect Taxes, CBIC, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Presently, he is posted as Deputy Commissioner in-charge of the recently created HQ Central Intelligence Unit (CIU), CGST & CE Zone, Vadodara which has been mandated to perform functions related to collection, collation & processing of information/intelligence and data analysis including data mining and analysis to detect fake units and also detection of fake invoice cases resulting in tax evasion and passing of fake Input Tax Credit and also to plug tax evasion. By far this unit has been able to pass on the information based on data mining, resulting in detection to the tune of thousands of Crores.
The Convenors of the National Webinar were Dr. Prem Chand and Dr. Jasper Vikas; Student Convenor – Mr. Abhishek Jain.
Dr. Prem Chand is an Assistant Professor at National Law University, Delhi and is also the Executive Director of the Centre for Law & Urban Development.
Dr. Jasper Vikas is an Assistant Professor at National Law University, Delhi and is also the Executive Director of the Centre for Tax Laws.
Urban law is the law that is responsible for shaping the urban cities by regulating the land use, institutions and the financials of urban cities. Urban laws are responsible for the effective planning and governance of urban cities and that helps enabling sustained growth, economic development and efficient distribution of resources for the welfare of the citizens. Urban law is changing and developing as fast as cities are. As cities grow ever bigger, the law strives to adapt to the challenges of governance that occur in large metropolitan areas.
In this webinar, the guest speakers discussed the role of law in advancing sustainable development in urban cities. There is less agreement on the specifics of law reform for urban cities or the pre-conditions for bringing it about. The importance of urban land reform, the pre-conditions for a successful programme of law reform for urban cities are discussed. Urban law reform for urban development cannot be divorced from the wider issues of good governance, the socio-economic make-up or the politics of the society in question, nor can it be seen as a quick fix. Neither law nor land reform is on its own a sufficient response to inequitable national and global economic policies. Thus, the Main Characteristics and Tools available to municipalities to transform cities into smart one are the need of the hour.
Various aspects of Urban Development, Smart Cities and Tax Policies were discussed during the Webinar. Amongst the plethora of topics discussed throughout the course of the National Webinar, Dr. Paramita Majumdar discussed in detail the concept of Smart Cities including the human rights concerns with smart city developments in India and other environmental concerns. She also covered the evolution of smart cities as well as the inter-relationship of Smart Cities with Urban Development, the Smart City Mission and the implementation challenges.
Next, Mr. Dhananjay Singh went on to discuss Urban Development in terms of Tax Policies, and greatly elaborated on the uniqueness of the real estate sector from the perspective of taxation. He went into great detail about the importance of infrastructure in urban cities and about the Tax Structure in India, the Real Estate Tax Structure and how and which taxes are subsumed under the GST. He also explained the importance and the utility of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals whose international cooperation would go a long way in transforming the world.