Bihar enhances ex-gratia for martyred soldiers to Rs 11L each

Patna, Sep 20 (PTI) The Nitish Kumar cabinet todayannounced to enhance ex-gratia amount to Rs 11 lakh each whichwill be paid to kin of three soldiers, hailing from Bihar andkilled in a terror attack on an army base in Uri in Jammu andKashmir on Sunday. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had yesterday announced anex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the threesoldiers which was enhanced to Rs 11 lakh each today. The decision to scale up ex-gratia amount to Rs 11 lakheach was taken at a meeting of state Cabinet chaired by Kumar. Three martyred soldiers of Bihar are S K Vidyarthi fromGaya, Rakesh Singh from Kaimur and Ashok Kumar Singh from Arain Bhojpur district. Saluting bravery of the soldiers who were killed in theterror attack at Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday,the CM had announced to accord full state honour to thethree martyred soldiers of the Bihar regiment. Three ministers attended the funeral ceremony of the asmany martyred at different places. In other important decisions, the Bihar cabinet gave itsnod for signing of an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) withCentral Board of Excise And Customs (CBEC), Governmenmt ofIndia, for implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST),likely to be rolled out from April 1, 2017. "The state cabinet today gave its nod for signing of anMoU between state’s Commercial Taxes Department and CentralBoard of Excise And Customs (CBEC), Ministry of Finance,Governmenmt of India. The decision would help in sharing ofdata with each other," Cabinet Secretariat Department’sPrincipal Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters in a postcabinet briefing here. Now the MoU will be sent to the Government of India whichwould approve it, Mehrotra said, adding that Bihar would sharevarious details such as tax collected on items, volume oftaxes, number of those under VAT and other tax net in state. The cabinet also sanctioned Rs 2100 crore as subsidy forBihar State Power (Holding) Company Ltd and its two subsidiarycompanies – North and South Bihar Power Distribution CompanyLtd- on account of making payment for power purchase from NTPCin the current financial year of 2016-17. PTI AR SNS SUSSMJ