1 US hiring stays healthy (Gulf News) US companies
added 179,000 jobs last month, according to a private survey, a steady gain
that suggests hiring remains healthy after a sharp fall-off in the spring.
The report shows that many businesses are still
hiring even as growth has been sluggish this year. The additional jobs, in
turn, could keep Americans spending and support a pickup in growth in the
second half of the year.
Still, the data cover only private businesses and
often diverge from the official figures. Economists forecast that the
government’s jobs report, to be released Friday, will show a gain of 175,000
jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to tick down to 4.8 per cent from 4.9
per cent.
Even so, this year’s sluggish growth has raised
concerns about the economy’s broader health. Growth has slowed to an annual
pace of just 1 per cent in the first six months of the year, half the
already-tepid 2 per cent pace of the seven-year old recovery.
The unemployment rate may keep falling, however.
Most analysts estimate the economy needs to add just 85,000 a month to absorb
population growth and keep the unemployment rate steady.
2 India clears unified tax bill (Soutik Biswas on BBC)
India's parliament has passed the much-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST)
bill. The tax reform has been labelled a landmark and India's biggest tax
reform since independence. The changes aim to streamline India's fragmented tax
system with a single levy.
Indian businesses have been lobbying for the single
tax rate as it would reduce costs, particularly for shipping goods across state
borders. What promises to one of the world's most complex tax reforms is
expected to be serviced by state-of-the-art technology.
Indian software giant Infosys is building a gigantic
electronic infrastructure - a GST portal - where taxpayers can register, make
payments and file returns. Some 7.5 million businesses will be covered by the
tax. Clearly, a successful GST in India will be a minor miracle.
Currently, everything sold in India is subject to a
multitude of taxes varying from state to state. This is a bureaucratic burden,
with a lot of money lost in a fragmented market. With every state deciding its
own taxes it also encourages local protectionism.
The new efficiency aims to boost growth, with
optimistic estimates suggesting more than 2% of added economic growth. India
already has overtaken China as the world's fastest growing economy. The Goods
and Services Tax will replace that confusing jumble of existing taxes - ranging
from lottery and entertainment tax to VAT, sales tax or luxury tax - with one
single tax.
The individual states fear they will lose money.
They will now be compensated for their lost revenue over the next five years.
Another compromise is that the lucrative businesses of fuel and alcohol have
been entirely left out of the new tax for now.
The government target for the tax coming into effect
is April 2017 but many doubt it will be in place by then. It's to be an
electronic tax with no more manual filing - the massive IT infrastructure will
be an added challenge on the way to India's tax miracle.
3 UN appeal to end Yazidi genocide (San Francisco
Chronicle) The Islamic State group is still committing genocide and other
crimes against the Yazidi minority in Iraq, a United Nations commission
investigating human rights abuses in Syria has said.
The commission's statement — released on the second
anniversary of the initial IS attack on the Sinjar area in Iraq — urged action
to prevent further death and suffering. About 5,000 Yazidi men were killed by
IS when the Sunni militant group took control of Iraq's northwest two years
ago. Thousands more, mostly women and children, were taken into captivity,
according to the UN.
The commission of inquiry said IS crimes
"against the Yazidis, including the crime of genocide, are ongoing."
It called for a refocus on the "rescue, protection of, and care for the
Yazidi community."
Iraq's Yazidi community - a small and isolated
religious minority that combines elements of Islam, Zoroastrianism and
Christianity - has been repeatedly persecuted by successive governments and
invading armies.
The UN panel's statement said that more than 3,200
women and children from the minority continue to be held by IS, and are
"subjected to almost-unimaginable violence," including the sexual
enslavement of girls while young Yazidi boys are forced to fight for IS.
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