Goods and Services Tax Council Meeting | GST

A single common “Goods and Services Tax (GST)” was proposed and given a go-ahead in 1999 during a meeting between the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his economic advisory panel. Mr Vajpayee set up a committee headed by the then finance minister of West Bengal, Asim Dasgupta to design a GST model. Later, Finance Minister P Chidambaram in February 2006 continued work on the same.  It finally was implemented on July 1st, 2017 to be a comprehensive, destination-based indirect tax that has replaced various indirect taxes that were implemented by the State and Centre such as VAT, excise duty, and others. The government of India also formed a GST Council to govern the rules the Goods and Services Tax. 

32nd GST Council meet held on 10th January 2019

32nd GST Council meetingwas held at New Delhi and chaired by Shri Arun Jaitley. Announcements made was a big relief to MSMEs and small traders.
The key takeaways of the 32nd GST Council meeting are as follows:
  • Increase in GST registration limit from Rs 20 lakhs up to Rs 40 lakhs for suppliers of goods.
  • Changes in the existing composition scheme made by increasing the turnover limit to join the scheme up to Rs 1.5 crores, tax payments to be made quarterly and returns to be filed annually starting 1st April 2019.
  • New composition scheme is introduced for service providers and those who supply services along with goods; the Turnover limit set is Rs 50 lakhs and the Tax rate is fixed at 6%.
  • No rate cuts were announced this time. GoMs were formed to study taxation of under-construction properties & lotteries.
  • Calamity cess up to 1% for up to 2 years will be charged for supplies made within the State of Kerala.
Why do we need a GST Council?
The GST council is the key decision-making body that will take all important decisions regarding the GST. The GST Council dictates tax rate, tax exemption, the due date of forms, tax laws, and tax deadlines, keeping in mind special rates and provisions for some states. The predominant responsibility of the GST Council is to ensure to have one uniform tax rate for goods and services across the nation.
How is the GST Council structured?
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is governed by the GST Council. Article 279 (1) of the amended Indian Constitution states that the GST Council has to be constituted by the President within 60 days of the commencement of the Article 279A.
According to the article, GST Council will be a joint forum for the Centre and the States. It consists of the following members:
  • The Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley will be the Chairperson
  • As a member, the Union Minister of State will be in charge of Revenue of Finance
  • The Minister in charge of finance or taxation or any other Minister nominated by each State government, as members.
GST Council recommendations
Article 279A (4) specifies that the Council will make recommendations to the Union and the States on the important issues related to GST, such as, the goods and services will be subject or exempted from the Goods and Services Tax.
They lay down GST laws, principles that govern the following:
  • Place of Supply
  • Threshold limits
  • GST rates on goods and services
  • Special rates for raising additional resources during a natural calamity or disaster
  • Special GST rates for certain States
Features of GST Council that you must know:
  • GST Council office is set up in New Delhi
  • Revenue Secretary is appointed as the Ex-officio Secretary to the GST Council
  • Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is included as the chairperson as a permanent invitee (non-voting) to all proceedings of the GST Council
  • Create a post for Additional Secretary to the GST Council
  • Create four posts of commissioner in the GST Council Secretariat (This is at the level of Joint Secretary)
  • GST Council Secretariat will have officers taken on deputation from both the Central and State Governments
The cabinet also provides funds for meetings the expenses (recurring and nonrecurring) of the GST Council Secretariat. This cost is completely borne by the Central government.
GST Council meetings
The GST Council meets to discuss and lay GST laws that will benefit dealers across the nation. The outcome of the previous latest GST Council meet was that the Council decided to implement GST provisions on e-way bills that requires goods of more than Rs.50,000 in value to be registered online before they can be moved. They have also extended the deadline to file GSTR-1.
The Council will also set up anti-profiteering screening committees that will make the National Anti-Profiteering Authority stronger under the GST law.
Other than laying GST laws, the GST Council have taken decisions as such:
  • The threshold limit for exemption of GST would be set at Rs.20 lakh per year for all States (except for special category states)
  • The threshold for special States is set at Rs 10 lakh per year
  • For composition scheme is set at Rs. 75 lakh for all States (except for the North East States and Himachal Pradesh – Set at Rs 50 lakh per year)
  • Ice cream, tobacco, pan masala, and other edible ice manufacturers shall not be eligible for composition levy (except for restaurant services)
GST Council also looks into drafting GST rules on registration, payment, valuation, input tax credit, composition, return, refund and invoice, and transitional provisions, among other things.

GOODS AND SERVICE TAX

1. What is GST?

GST is an Indirect Tax which has replaced many Indirect Taxes in India. The Goods and Service Tax Act was passed in the Parliament on 29th March 2017. The Act came into effect on 1st July 2017; Goods & Services Tax Law in India is a comprehensivemulti-stagedestination-based tax that is levied on every value addition.
In simple words, Goods and Service Tax (GST) is an indirect tax levied on the supply of goods and services. This law has replaced many indirect tax laws that previously existed in India.
GST is one indirect tax for the entire country.
So, before Goods and Service Tax, the pattern of tax levy was as follows:
GST
Under the GST regime, the tax is levied at every point of sale. In the case of intra-state sales, Central GST and State GST are charged. Inter-state sales are chargeable to Integrated GST.
Now let us try to understand the definition of Goods and Service Tax – “GST is a comprehensive, multi-stagedestination-based tax that is levied on every value addition.”

Multi-stage

There are multiple change-of-hands an item goes through along its supply chain: from manufacture to final sale to the consumer.
Let us consider the following case:
  • Purchase of raw materials
  • Production or manufacture
  • Warehousing of finished goods
  • Sale to wholesaler
  • Sale of the product to the retailer
  • Sale to the end consumer

GST
Goods and Services Tax is levied on each of these stages which makes it a multi-stage tax.

Value Addition

GST
The manufacturer who makes biscuits buys flour, sugar and other material. The value of the inputs increases when the sugar and flour are mixed and baked into biscuits.
The manufacturer then sells the biscuits to the warehousing agent who packs large quantities of biscuits and labels it. That is another addition of value after which the warehouse sells it to the retailer.
The retailer packages the biscuits in smaller quantities and invests in the marketing of the biscuits thus increasing its value.
GST is levied on these value additions i.e. the monetary value added at each stage to achieve the final sale to the end customer.

Destination-Based

Consider goods manufactured in Maharashtra and are sold to the final consumer in Karnataka. Since Goods & Service Tax is levied at the point of consumption. So, the entire tax revenue will go to Karnataka and not Maharashtra.

2. Journey of GST in India

The GST journey began in the year 2000 when a committee was set up to draft law. It took 17 years from then for the Law to evolve. In 2017 the GST Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. On 1st July 2017 the GST Law came into force.

History of GST

3. Advantages Of GST

GST has mainly removed the Cascading effect on the sale of goods and services. Removal of cascading effect has impacted the cost of goods. Since the GST regime eliminates the tax on tax, the cost of goods decreases.
GST is also mainly technologically driven. All activities like registration, return filing, application for refund and response to notice needs to be done online on the GST Portal; this accelerates the processes.GST Advantages

4. What are the components of GST?

There are 3 taxes applicable under this system: CGST, SGST & IGST.
  • CGST: Collected by the Central Government on an intra-state sale (Eg: transaction happening within Maharashtra)
  • SGST: Collected by the State Government on an intra-state sale (Eg: transaction happening within Maharashtra)
  • IGST: Collected by the Central Government for inter-state sale (Eg: Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu)
In most cases, the tax structure under the new regime will be as follows:
TransactionNew RegimeOld Regime
Sale within the StateCGST + SGSTVAT + Central Excise/Service taxRevenue will be shared equally between the Centre and the State
Sale to another StateIGSTCentral Sales Tax + Excise/Service TaxThere will only be one type of tax (central) in case of inter-state sales. The Centre will then share the IGST revenue based on the destination of goods.

Illustration: 

  • Let us assume that a dealer in Gujarat had sold the goods to a dealer in Punjab worth Rs. 50,000. The tax rate is 18% comprising of only IGST.
In such case, the dealer has to charge Rs. 9,000 as IGST. This revenue will go to the Central Government.
  • The same dealer sells goods to a consumer in Gujarat worth Rs. 50,000. The GST rate on the good is 12%. This rate comprises of  CGST at 6% and SGST at 6%.
The dealer has to collect Rs. 6,000 as Goods and Service Tax. Rs. 3,000 will go to the Central Government and Rs. 3,000 will go to the Gujarat government as the sale is within the state.

5. Tax Laws before GST

In the earlier indirect tax regime, there were many indirect taxes levied by both state and centre. States mainly collected taxes in the form of Value Added Tax (VAT). Every state had a different set of rules and regulations.
Interstate sale of goods was taxed by the Centre. CST (Central State Tax) was applicable in case of interstate sale of goods.  Other than above there were many indirect taxes like entertainment tax, octroi and local tax that was levied by state and centre.
This led to a lot of overlapping of taxes levied by both state and centre.
For example, when goods were manufactured and sold, excise duty was charged by the centre. Over and above Excise Duty, VAT was also charged by the State. This lead to a tax on tax also known as the cascading effect of taxes.
The following is the list of indirect taxes in the pre-GST regime:
  • Central Excise Duty
  • Duties of Excise
  • Additional Duties of Excise
  • Additional Duties of Customs
  • Special Additional Duty of Customs
  • Cess
  • State VAT
  • Central Sales Tax
  • Purchase Tax
  • Luxury Tax
  • Entertainment Tax
  • Entry Tax
  • Taxes on advertisements
  • Taxes on lotteries, betting, and gambling
CGST, SGST, and IGST has replaced all the above taxes.
However, the chargeability of CST for Inter-state purchase at a concessional rate of 2%, by issue and utilisation of c-Form is still prevalent for certain Non-GST goods such as:
(i) Petroleum crude;
(ii) High-speed diesel;
(iii) Motor spirit (commonly known as petrol);
(iv) Natural gas;
(v) Aviation turbine fuel; and
(vi) Alcoholic liquor for human consumption.
in respect of following transactions only:
  • Resale
  • Use in manufacturing or processing
  • Use in the telecommunication network or in mining or in the generation or distribution of electricity or any other power

6. What changes has GST brought in?

In the pre-GST regime, every purchaser including the final consumer paid tax on tax. This tax on tax is called Cascading Effect of Taxes.
GST has removed this cascading effect as the tax is calculated only on the value-addition at each stage of the transfer of ownership. Understand what the cascading effect is and how GST helps by watching this simple video:
This indirect tax system under GST has improved the collection of taxes as well as boosted the development of Indian economy by removing the indirect tax barriers between states and integrating the country through a uniform tax rate.

Illustration:

Based on the above example of biscuit manufacturer along with some numbers, let’s see what happens to the cost of goods and the taxes in the earlier and GST regimes.
Tax calculations in earlier regime:
ActionCost10% TaxTotal
Manufacturer1,0001001,100
Warehouse adds a label and repacks @ 3001,4001401,540
Retailer advertises @ 5002,0402042,244
Total1,8004442,244
Along the way, the tax liability was passed on at every stage of the transaction and the final liability comes to rest with the customer. This is called the Cascading Effect of Taxes where a tax is paid on tax and the value of the item keeps increasing every time this happens.
Tax calculations in current regime: 
ActionCost10% TaxActual LiabilityTotal
Manufacturer1,0001001001,100
Warehouse adds label and repacks @ 3001,300130301,430
Retailer advertises @ 5001,800180501,980
Total1,8001801,980
In the case of Goods and Services Tax, there is a way to claim credit for tax paid in acquiring input. What happens in this case is, the individual who has paid a tax already can claim credit for this tax when he submits his taxes.
In the end, every time an individual is able to claim the input tax credit, the sale price is reduced and the cost price for the buyer is reduced because of lower tax liability. The final value of the biscuits is therefore reduced from Rs. 2,244 to Rs. 1,980, thus reducing the tax burden on the final customer.
GST regime also brought a centralised system of waybills by the introduction of “E-way bills”. This system was launched on 1st April 2018 for Inter-state movement of goods and on 15th April 2018 for intra-state movement of goods in a staggered manner. Under the e-way bill system, manufacturers, traders & transporters are now able to generate e-way bills for the goods transported from the place of its origin to its destination on a common portal with ease. Tax authorities are also benefitted as this system has reduced time at check -posts and help reduce tax .

A Comparative Study: Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of Needs Vs Purushartha and Ashram concept of Vedas


ABRAHAM MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS:

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is an intriguing concept. It makes one understand the pattern of human needs & goals from a psychological point of view since Maslow was an acclaimed psychologist.
It consists of the following five stages:
1.       Physiological needs: Food, water, Sleep, Shelter, Sex,etc.
2.       Safety Needs: Personal security, Job security, emotional security, financial security, Health and well being, etc.
3.       Social Belonging/Affiliation Needs: Friendships, Intimacy, Family, Networking, Affiliations,etc.
4.       Esteem Needs: Recognition, Status, Importance, Respect from others, etc.
5.       Self Actualization: This is actually a Goal. It is stated as the Realization of one’s full potential.
Now interestingly, in later years, Maslow chose to be critical of his Self Actualization concept and added one more level to this hierarchy that is over and above Self-Actualization. He called it:
6.       Transcendence: This too is a Goal. One finds fullest realization in giving oneself to something beyond oneself – for example, in altruism or spirituality. The desire to reach the infinite. "Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness, behaving and relating, as ends rather than means, to oneself, to significant others, to human beings in general, to other species, to nature, and to the cosmos" (Farther Reaches of Human Nature, New York 1971, p. 269).
All of the needs are basically aims to the goal which is self actualisation and Transcendence.
Now there is a lot of criticism that are associated with Maslow’s concept with regards to its sequence and its applicability, its validity, its methodology or lack of it, etc.
However, we still are very much indebted to its appeal and relevance across all quarters of academia and outside of it.
The aspect we are going to dwell upon here is of a different nature and scope. It is going to be a comparative study which will open up a lot of new academic avenues of the readers with regards to deeper study of the theories we read about in our academic books.

THE PURUSHARTHA CONCEPT IN THE VEDAS:
In ancient Indian texts of Sanatan Dharma, the Vedas, detailed the four aims of human life. The Purushartha – Purush meaning Human and Artha meaning Purpose. The Purpose of being Human or the Purpose of Human Life. The way Human Life should be guided by proper,value oriented and correct actions.
The ancient Sanatan Dharma seers believed that motivation of human behavior was based on four important needs: physical and bodily comforts, security needs through proper order and regulation of family as well as society, need for name and fame as well as recognition through thorough reading and knowledge of the scriptures as well as applying them in practical life, and last but not the least, the need to actualize one’s hidden Self through meditation and living an austere life with spiritual enlightenment to gain salvation and join with the Divine forever.
The ultimate Goal of human life is to attain Moksha. Moksha is salvation, Nirvana, freedom from the cycle of birth & death, the realization of inner spirituality of man.
Now this concept written thousands of years ago is strikingly similar to the modern theory of Maslow’s. Before going on to a comparative study of the same let us explain the Purushartha concept briefly in order to make it amply clear and relatable.
The four Purusharthas are:
  • Dharma: Righteousness, Duty
  • Artha: Wealth
  • Kama: Desire
  • Moksha: Liberation
It need not be in the hierarchial order as it is stated but it is supposed to be in an order of priority.
Dharma: Dharma which is often confused with religion, simply means one’s rightful duty in all circumstances and if one needs to do away with the confusion as to what is right or wrong while performing a duty for a correct life then he/she should refer to the Vedas,the Vedangas, the Sutra literature of which the most important are the Dharmashastras, and scriptures such as the Bhagavadgita. for guidance. Dharma is responsible for It is responsible for order, regularity, harmony, control, predictability and accountability in human life and Earth.
Artha: It means wealth. Wealth earned is not wrong but wealth accumulated by loot or deceit is forbidden and leads to a lot of havoc in life. One has to follow the right way of accumulating wealth based on right intention, right means and moderation. Dharma has to be followed while earning wealth as well.
Kama: It simply means desire. Desires could be of any kind whether personal or professional. It needs to follow the right code of conduct/Dharma as well else it would lead to one’s own downfall.
Moksha: It is the ultimate goal of a human life to attain salvation and oneness with the Divine. A stage of Nirvana and inner realization of the individual self and the universal connect we all have inside us in the form of the soul. It leads to selfless deeds then which helps the society/mankind as a whole.
Now, the interesting part is that the pursuit of Dharma begins when one is initiated into studies at a young age, the pursuit of kama Artha begins after one completes their studies and becomes a professional and householder. The pursuit of Moksha can begin at any time when one feels the pull.

PURUSHARTHA CARRIED OUT VIA THE FOUR ASHRAMS/STAGES OF HUMAN LIFE:

The path of these Purusharthas also have a designed stage for it that is detailed in the four ashrams/stages of human life.
Source – Wikipedia:
The Ashram system
Ashram or stage
Age (years)[8]
Description
Rituals of transition
Brahmacharya
(student life)
Till 24
Brahmacharya represented the bachelor student stage of life. This stage focused on education and included the practice of celibacy.[2] The student went to a Gurukul (house of the guru) and typically would live with a Guru(teacher), acquiring knowledge of science, philosophy, scriptures and logic, practicing self-discipline, working to earn dakshina to be paid for the guru, learning to live a life of Dharma (righteousness, morals, duties).
Upanayana at entry.[9][10]Samavartana at exit.[11]
Grihastha
(household life)
24–48
This stage referred to the individual's married life, with the duties of maintaining a household, raising a family, educating one's children, and leading a family-centred and a dharmic social life.[2][12][13] Grihastha stage was considered as the most important of all stages in sociological context, as human beings in this stage not only pursued a virtuous life, they produced food and wealth that sustained people in other stages of life, as well as the offsprings that continued mankind.[2][4] The stage also represented one where the most intense physical, sexual, emotional, occupational, social and material attachments exist in a human being's life.[14]
Hindu weddingat entry.
Vanaprastha
(retired life)
48–72
The retirement stage, where a person handed over household responsibilities to the next generation, took an advisory role, and gradually withdrew from the world.[15][16] Vanaprastha stage was a transition phase from a householder's life with its greater emphasis on Artha and Kama (wealth, security, pleasure and sexual pursuits) to one with greater emphasis on Moksha (spiritual liberation).[15][17]

Sannyasa
(renounced life)
72+
(or anytime)
The stage was marked by renunciation of material desires and prejudices, represented by a state of disinterest and detachment from material life, generally without any meaningful property or home (Ascetic), and focussed onMoksha, peace and simple spiritual life.[18][19] Anyone could enter this stage after completing the Brahmacharyastage of life.[1]



Alternate classification system of life stages:



Developmental
stages of life[citation needed]
Ashrama
(stages of
dutiful life)
Purushartha
(aims of life)
Saisava
0–2 years


No moral codes during this period
Balya
3–12 years
Vidyarambha, Learning of alphabet, arithmetic, basic education
Kaumara
(13–19)
Kaishora
13–15 years
Brahmacharya
Dharma and Moksha

Tarunya
16–19 years
Brahmacharya
Dharma and Moksha

Yauvana
(20–59)
Yauvana-I
(Tarunayauvana)
20–29 years
Brahmacharya orGrihastha
Dharma, Artha and Moksha

Yauvana-II
(Praudhayauvana)
30–59 years
Grihastha
Dharma, Artha and Kamaand Moksha

Vardhakya
(60+ )
Vardhakya
(Period-I)
60–79 years
Dharma and Moksha

Vardhakya
(Period-II)
80+ years
Dharma and Moksha



COMPARATIVE STUDY:

Now if one compares this with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs it bears an uncanny mirror image reflection of the former on the latter.
Kama can be equated with Physiological needs and Belonging/Affiliation needs
Artha can be equated with Security needs and Esteem needs.
Dharma can be equated with Self Actualization.
Moksha can be equated with Transcendence.
And all these are taught or fulfilled during the various Ashrams/stages of human life as mentioned above as well.

CONCLUSION:

With this one should understand that in order to enhance one’s knowledge and work upon existing theories as well as understand modern theories it is imperative to find their base in ancient scriptures that are scientifically valid even today and withold the test of time. Also due credit should be given to them. There is a vast repository of knowledge lying hidden and untouched that needs to be brought to the fore and imbibed as a student of the discipline of Social Sciences.


Friday, December 21, 2018

Social Media in e-Governance: A Study with Special Reference to India

This paper makes an attempt to analyze current use of social media and their promising advantages for e-governance in government organizations. It discusses potential issues especially issues related to security and privacy of individuals, employees, infrastructure and data that impede successful implementation of social media for e-governance. It examines draft government of India framework for embedding social media in organizational structure and examines issued guidelines for platform to be used, authorization to engage on behalf of government organization, scope and extend of such engagement, etc. It compares these guidelines with similar guidelines of some other nations in terms of employee’s access, account management, acceptable use, employee conduct, content, security, legal issues and citizen conduct and enumerates its merits, demerits and scope for further improvements.

 
Social media provides users with deep and rich experience for participation, interaction and collaboration. Various social media tools allow their users to create and share information on the web and collaborate with others interactively thus making easier to find information and connect online with one another. Social media has also been used for e-learning as they have created opportunities for effective teacher-learner, learner-learner and teacher-teacher communication, interaction and collaboration. With the inclusion of mobile technology, there has not only been an intense rise in the number and type of social media tools but their use is also on increase. In developed countries like USA, Poland, UK and Korea at least four in ten adult citizens use social media tools. Social media sites dominate the Internet usage in Asia and the Pacific [1]. In comparison to men, women are more actively engaged in social media sites [2]. Though currently the use of social media sites is more popular among youngsters but studies are revealing that there is an increasing trend of participation by elders from last few years. In general social media can be classified in the following four categories: 1) online networks and ecosystems—e.g. Facebook LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter2) online publications—e.g. YouTube, Flicker, RSS, SlideShare and Twitter, 3) Online collaborative platforms —e.g. Wikis like MediaWiki, blogs like Wordpress or Blogger, and collaborative office solutions like Office- 365, Google Docs, MS Lync, Debategraph, Teamwork or WorkSpot, and 4) online feedback systems—e.g. voting and debating, rating and commenting, surveys, polls, blogs, etc. Online networks and ecosystems build and reflect the networks and relationships between peers. Online publication tools provide services or platforms for sharing and publishing content online. Collaborative platforms facilitate cooperative and work processes between people. Tools for online feedback facilitate input from an audience through one-way or two-way communication. To promote business many organizations have included social media in their organizational structure. Governments of various nations have also incorporated social media in e-governance, however, to make this integration secure and more efficient they have devised frameworks, policies and guidelines that regulate this integration.

The remaining paper is organized as follows: Section 2 briefly presents current use of social media in e-governance, followed by discussions on its potential advantages and involved risks in Sections 3 and 4 respectively. Section 5 presents the highlights of a recent study that analyzed 26 social media documents. In Section 6, core elements of a successful social media policy are enumerated. In Section 7, Indian Government framework & guidelines for use of social media in e-governance are examined and its limitations are enumerated in Section 8. Finally, Section 9 provides guidelines for improving this framework followed by conclusion.

Commercial organizations, academic institutions and individuals use social media extensively for online presence, promotion of goods and services, gathering customer feedbacks, experience sharing, consumer and customer interactions, collaborative content preparation, elearning, communication, social interaction, etc. Recently, politicians, citizens, and governments throughout the globe including those from least developed countries have demonstrated effective use of social media tools to revolutionize governance arrangements, mobilize movements against and in support of governments, hold election campaigns, sustain government-citizen communication in disorder, etc. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have actively embraced Twitter and used the social networking sites as campaign tools during the 2012 presidential contest to communicate directly with supporters and, more importantly, drive the political conversation in a way that reaches far beyond the site. Governments under some policy or government officials in their personal capacity have been using social networks for foreign affairs, administration and information. USA and UK governments beside others like Australia and Sweden are most active in the use of social media for digital diplomacy. Currently, 66 percent of all USA Government agencies use one or the other form of social media website [1]. According to the UN e-Governance survey 2012 [3], 48 percent i.e. 78 member states provide either a “follow us on Facebook” or “follow us on Twitter” statement on their government websites. According to same survey 7 percent such websites provide chat rooms or IM features to gather public opinion. In India, various ministers and officials actively use social media to communicate with citizens.

Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also shown his presence on Twitter as his office launched its social media initiative through Twitter (http://twitter. com/#!/pmoindia), You Tube (http://www.facebook.com/ pages/Indian-Prime-Ministers-Office/107934225905981) and Facebook (http://www.youtube.com/user/zPMOffice India?ob=0&feature=results_main). Similar efforts have been initiated by various other ministries and other government functionaries throughout the country.

Various impediments for adoption of e-governance include lack of awareness of e-services [4], access to eservices [5-6], citizens interest [7], government support [8], digital divide [9] and low usability of government websites. Another important factor in adoption of new technologies required in e-governance is trust on government. Communication with citizens has been recognized as the most important measure to build this trust towards e-governance [10-13].

The four major potential strengths of social media sites are collaboration, participation, empowerment, and time. These facilitate governments to serve its people as they promote government information, services and collaboration with its stakeholders bringing together government agencies, citizens, agencies work and information. Social media can expand the usage of Internet to realize the full benefits of e-governance. Social media sites not only offer benefits to e-governance by intensifying and monitoring services but also reduce costs while improving their quality. Using these sites, governments can post job advertisements, promote services, announce and market events, seek public feedbacks and cooperation and collaborate across its geographically diverse agencies. Since social media has enormous prospectus for increasing citizen usage of e-service [14] and e-participation [15], its greater usage by public could increase transparency which in turn can increases trust on government. A recent review [16] of social media use in e-government has listed its various other applications in e-governance. In its recent report captioned as “Designing Social Media Policy for Government: Eight Essential Elements” [17] three different ways of use of social media sites by employees at work have been identified by Centre for Technology in Government, University at Albany. These uses are for official agency interests, professional interests, and personal interests. Often these three are not mutually exclusive and sometimes there are no clear lines dividing official agency use from professional use or professional use from personal use. David Landsbergen in his recent research works [18,19] identified ways in which social media tools are used in different government agencies and collected five mechanisms as shown in Figure 1 by which social media tools can realize Government 2.0.

Government information systems including its infrastructure, individuals, agency, employees and information is facing threats that are persistent, pervasive and aggressive [20]. This situation gets intensified by the environment created by social media because it uses Web 2.0 technologies that are constantly changing and involves risks on multiple fronts including those related to behavior, ergonomic configuration, regulation and technology [21]. Since the risks involved are interdependent, therefore, regulating one may intensify the other.

Figure 1. Mechanisms by which social media tools can realize Government 2.0.

Since the Web 2.0 environment provides its users with immense power to collaborate, share and interact, they can easily indulge in practices that could infringe the rights of others. The most common risks related to behavior of users during interactions on the Web are risks to reputation, privacy, intellectual property, and publication of personal and illegal content. Social media has potential to raise campaigns in favor or against governments or groups. There has been a sinister use of social networking tools as well, e.g. during summer 2011 riots in the UK. In Kashmir, 2011 upsurge of separatist movement causing unrest in the Kashmir was also directly influenced by the use of social networking.

Technological advancements in the Web have created user friendly and easy to use interfaces and services. Web 2.0 including social media now provide easy environments that permit sharing documents, videos and audio, create groups, add online friends, post profiles, etc. Some configurations also permit to perform these jobs anonymously. This flexibility in the configuration can risk its users to unintentionally violate privacy, intellectual property and other regulations or make actions that may be illegal. Social media permits its users to create their detailed profiles including personal information, relationships, pictures, etc. which can be seen by others and then rearranged and transformed to unacceptable formats and platforms.

Governments and organizations have created laws and regulations that describe what is “right” and what is “wrong” when communicating online. Legal frameworks vary considerable from country to country but the social media has a global character. In many cases appropriate punishments are set to be awarded for violation of these laws. Since Web 2.0 is rapidly changing, therefore, legal frameworks need to be updated frequently to take care of these new developments. However, since in social networking environment different stakeholders share different positions and perform changing roles, it may be difficult to establish responsibility. Further, with little or no knowledge of the laws governing use of social media and consequences for violating some of these laws, users can easily get trapped into crimes for indulging in online offences and crimes.

Attacks through techniques like spear phishing, social engineering and web applications to social media risk individuals, agency, employees and information. Using social media with little or moderate computing skills, individuals or employees face multiple risks from highly skilled cyber attackers to get involved in unlawful activities and compromise on information security and privacy.

Social media tools have created opportunities for collaborative government and have the potential to facilitate governments to reach its citizens, shape online debates and e-participation, empower citizens, groups and communities and even revive or demand democracy and thus take the evolution of e-government towards new directions. Social media applications also pose several risks including isolation, exclusion, violation of privacy, misuse of information and security threats. Therefore, a comprehensive policy framework can serve as a key enabler for government organizations in providing guidelines for use of social media in governess. Unique challenges are involved in devising policies for the use of social media in e-government as ambiguity looms large on several key parameters including expected benefits, risks involved, effectiveness, etc. Therefore, many government departments throughout the globe have designed guidelines and policies for the use of social media in e-governess projects which differ primarily on the elements covered under these documents and the magnitude of detail under each element.

The highlights of a detailed analysis [21] in terms of content and approach of 26 such documents and a limited survey of the use of social media tools by 32 government professionals is presented below:
• Eight essential core elements for a social media policy are: Employee Access, Account Management, Acceptable Use, Employee Conduct, Content, Security, Legal Issues and Citizen Conduct.
• Only five documents addressed the issue of employee access to social media sites, most of them suggested employee access to be controlled by granting access to selected sites only after business case justification.
• Twelve documents addressed the issue of account management, out of which eight were from local governments’ which provided explicit policy for account management and others which were state policies provided enterprise level suggestions which varied from one other considerably.
• Twelve documents addressed the issue of acceptable use particularly for personal use. The guidelines mostly pointed to the use of existing acceptable use policy regarding ICT infrastructure. It is clear that the policy makers are striving hard to draw boundaries between personal and professional use of employees.
• Twenty one documents set guidelines for employees conduct addressing issue of employees’ behavior which mostly referred directly or indirectly to the general pre-established employee code of conduct. Some provided guidelines specifically to social media including guidelines to respect rules of venue, respect transparency and openness in interactions, and trust. No policy document directly recommended penalties for hosting or disseminating of inappropriate or illegal content.
• Fourteen documents addressed the issues pertaining to content and its management by providing varying guidelines in this regard. Some permit only public information officers or selected individuals or agency functionaries to post content while others permit all employees to post information on agency blogs. No policy provided content guidelines for professional or personal use. Ten policy documents contain instructions to provide a standard disclaimer to announce that employees’ opinion and content may not confer to the agency position.
• Fifteen documents provided one or more specific guidelines mostly technical and behavioral to ensure security of data and technical infrastructure of the agency. Some pointed to the use of existing IT security policy. Various concerns pertaining to technological guidelines addressed in these policies included password security, functionality, use of Public Key Infrastructure for authentication, virus scans, use of complex passwords, restriction for posting of classified information, and control of account credentials.  The concerns addressed in some documents included spear phishing, social engineering, posting of classified and citizens’ information.
• Some of the documents specifically pointed to existing laws and on the contrary others took a general approach suggesting employees to adhere to existing laws and regulations without pointing to the actual laws. The explicitly mentioned laws pertain to privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of information, public record management, public disclosure and accessibility. A few address potential legal issues by directing use of disclaimers of various forms on the social media sites.
• Eleven documents addressed issue of citizen conduct primarily by providing guidelines for dealing with comments posted by citizens. Some allow posting of comments by citizens while others do not. Those allowing posting of comments provide rules referring to offensive language, inciting violence, or promoting illegal activities. Among these some suggest to designate responsibility for controlled flow and moderation of comments.

The core elements of a social media policy as identified in [17] are shown in Figure 2. Each of the element covers a set of issues that must be addressed to adequately in any successful social media policy for government agencies. These core elements and the issues under each are briefly stated below:
Employee Access: At work employees can use social media sites for the purposes of carrying out official business or professional development or any personnel interests. Access to social media sites can be controlled by different forms of filtering. Controlling access to social media sites of different types of employees performing different roles in an organization is critical for the effectiveness of e-governance. Employee access to social media sites may be controlled by limiting it to some number or type of employees or by limiting the sites or both.
Account Management: Account management in an agency is not only required to keep record of social media accounts created, maintained and closed by its employees for work or professional use but also to define procedures for creation of such accounts. Account Management policy for use in a government agency must clearly be defined as an account gives access to all features of that social media site. An official account on a social media site can be granted by approval of one designated officer or by approval of more than one designated officers.

Figure 2. Eight essential core elements of a social media policy.

Acceptable Use: Acceptable use policy governs not only the use of social media but also the use of Internet and other technologies by the employees.  It may, quantify online hours, usage monitoring, penalties for policy violation, etc.

Employee Conduct: Employee conduct policy governs, employee online ethics, behavior and penalties awarded for violating this policy. General code of conduct of employees within a government agency to differentiate between “right” and “wrong” in terms of employees conduct may not cover fresh issues associates with social media. Therefore, code of conduct policy for employees governing social media must be revised periodically to cover fresh issues.

Content: Content policy controls permission to employees to post and manage content on official social media pages. It must also govern what type of official content is allowed to be posted on employees’ personal or professional social media page.

Security: Security guidelines aim to safeguard government data and technical infrastructure associated with use of social media from technological and behavior risks. Social media when used in e-governance involves fresh security and privacy concerns which a successful policy must address to adequately.

Legal Issues: Legal guidelines ensure that government employees abide by existing laws and regulations when using social media tools. In recent years governments have raised laws regulating Information Technology use by individuals and organizations. However, social media has created possibilities for unique technological, behavior, and social crimes which may not be directly covered under existing laws, therefore, existing Information Technology related laws need to be constantly augmented to check new crimes.

Citizens Conduct: Since social media integration with e-governance makes it possible to have a public citizen-government communication, therefore, rules for citizen engagement with the government are created. These rules govern various aspects of feedbacks and comments including whether to allow comments and feedbacks or not, penalties for use of offensive language, inciting violence and promoting illegal activity.

In India, various policy/frameworks, standards, guidelines and best practices have been devised for e-governance and several committees such as Metadata and Data Standards (MDDS), Biometrics, Localization, Security, Mobile Governance, Interoperability Framework for e-Governance in India (IFEG), Digital signature, etc. have been constituted to formulate standards. In September 2011, Govt. of India formulated a draft framework and guidelines which has been updated in April 2012 for the use of social media for government organizations [22]. The guidelines aim at assisting e-governance projects of the central and state governments being implemented under national e-governess plan for engagement of social media in these projects. The document briefly introduces social media, its need in government agencies besides providing framework and guidelines for its use. The framework comprises of seven elements which group various issues related to the use of social media sites. Some of the issues are highlighted only while as for others detailed guidelines are provided in this document. These elements and important issues in each of the element are depicted in Figure 3.

Following sections briefly present various highlights of this framework:
• The framework comprises of seven stages representing seven elements connected in a cycle to demonstrate continuous evolution and scope for improvement. Some issues have been addressed at multiple stages.
• Social media may be used by government agencies for either information dissemination or for public engagement. These include its use for policy making, education and recruitment.
• Existing social media platforms such as social networking, social bookmarking, self-publishing, transaction oriented, or any similar media may be used by government agencies. Agencies may also create their own social communication platforms provided that the existing laws permit it and considering the duration, type and scope of public engagement intended to be offered.
• Official pages on the social media must reflect official position and the interaction must adhere to rules and abide by existing laws with regard to account governance, responses, resource utilization, roles and responsibilities, accountability, content creation, accessibility and moderation, record management, data security and privacy and identity of employees.
• A government agency must maintain same and meaningful name on different social media sites (as far as possible) and proper record of login ID’s and passwords. Though, employees’ engagement may be through personal or official accounts but the official responses should be short and to the point through non-anonymous official accounts and by the cerned official only within pre decided turnaround time. A mail integration may be used to ensure timely response. In case an employee posts comments in personal capacity, it must be ensured that no confidential information is disclosed and the engagement clearly mentions that the comment is personal and not official.

Figure 3. Indian government framework for social media.

Answers to frequently asked queries should be prepared, maintained and displayed for which no separate engagement should be encouraged. Social media must be used for propagation of only official policy and no unverified information or frivolous material should be posted.
• Resources for social media and their responsibilities may be either outsourced or internal to an agency. For moderated conversation, it is necessary to have dedicated resources including a well-trained leader within the agency. There must be clearly defined roles and responsibilities set with regard to responding of Right to Information (RTI), maintenance of IDS and passwords, data security, privacy, etc. Employee should be accountable for their use of social media and employee engagement must be governed by RTI Act, IT Act 2000 and IT Amendment Act 2008.
• Official content must be specified, tailored, moderated and must follow Government of India guidelines for Websites, address challenges related to accessibility of Indian languages and differently abled persons. Records of interactions influencing decision making must be preserved in soft/hard copies. Agencies are encouraged to enter service level agreements with social media service providers to ensure Indian regulations for storage, archiving, access, complaint and response mechanisms.
• All existing laws more particularly RTI Act, IT Act 2000 and IT Amendment Act 2008 govern the engagement on social media. Security of personal data is governed by Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices & Sensitive Personal data or Information) rules 2011 and ISO 27001 standards. Privacy of individuals must be guaranteed in accordance to existing laws governing data protection and privacy.
• A pilot must be created to test the efficiency and effectiveness of the engagement with public. The engagement must be quantitatively and qualitatively monitored using social network analysis and demographic information, dashboards and respondent connection must be used to extend and expand the engagement. After successfully refining the pilot it must be scaled and fully integrated in the agencies communication and administrative structure.

Though this framework and guidelines have been revised in April 2012 after its initial preparation, yet there are various issues that either have not been fully addressed to or have not been included in the guidelines. The shortcomings in the framework are enumerated below:
• Neither any clear guidelines regarding employees’ permission to access social media sites during office hours for their professional and personal use nor any technological measures such as filtering has been suggested for controlling employee access to these sites in the framework. The objective of the use of social media in government organizations does not include use of social media for employee professional and personal development. Further, the guidelines does not include any instructions regarding the mechanism for granting controlled access (business case justification, access to selected sites, duration of access, etc.) to employees to social media sites for official purpose.
• Though Account management has been covered by the guidelines but certain issues like procedure for granting permission to an official to procure an official account on social media site have not been discussed. A public information officer in most of such policies is made in charge of granting such a permission. For a strict control often approval from two parties like communication department and IT department has been suggested.
• The resource governance sub section of the policy covers acceptable use which does not directly quantify online hours, usage monitoring, penalties for policy violation, etc. However, it suggests that the employee allowed to interact with the public should be held accountable and points out at existing immunity provision of RTI Act, IT Act and IT Amendment Act 2008. Further, like some other policies and documents, it has not drawn boundaries between personal and professional use of employees.
• Guidelines for employees conduct have been given at multiple places in the document which are in tune with such guidelines provided in other policy documents. Detailed guidelines have been provided for legal provisions in this regard. Since social media provide 24X7 engagement opportunity, the guidelines fall short in addressing employee conduct from professional and personal accounts.
• Guidelines for the employees to post in personal or professional capacities have not been addresses to in the framework. Guidelines do mention requirement of moderation of the content, however, does not provide sufficient guidelines for fixing responsibilities within the organization for this purpose. Various policies permit their employee to post freely on agency blogs on various mission related topics but Indian guidelines are silent in this regard.
• The framework has provided guidelines for security of personal data and also has covered privacy of individuals, however, it lacks technical guidelines for achieving the same. No guidelines have been provided for password security, functionality, use of PKI for authentication, virus scans, use of complex passwords, and control of account credentials. It does not provide guidelines for spear phishing or social engineering.
• Legal guidelines have been provided at multiple places in the framework, however, all of them repeat the existing laws that include RTI Act, IT Act, and IT Amendment Act 2008. Though, most of the issues are covered by these laws but social media has created possibilities for unique technological, behavior, and social crimes which may not be directly covered under these laws, therefore, existing Information Technology related laws need to be constantly augmented to check new crimes.
• With respect to the citizen conduct, rules have been clearly depicting how a government agency should classify comments and engage with the citizens. They specify who and when it is necessary and not necessary to respond to comments. Further, they also specify why and how comments that make influence on the policy making decision should be preserved. However, the policy is silent about mechanism that could make a public comment or feedback acceptable or not for the purpose of policy making, etc.
• The guidelines are silent about information confidentiality, integrity and availability and procedures government agencies should adopt to achieve this trio. Though the policy refers to the adherence of various sections of IT Act 2000 and its amendment but no direct reference has been given to any information security act or standard. ICT faces severe security challenges but no specific or very limited guidelines are provided for information security education.
• The guidelines fall short to address risk management, mitigation and issue of acceptance of residual risks by the use of social media. Though the guidelines encourage agencies to enact service level agreements with operators of social media sites but do not provide guidelines about what agencies should seek from these operators in respect of stronger security and privacy controls, multifactor authentication, cross site scripting, persistent cookies, content moderation and monitoring, access to employees official accounts, and code validation and signing.
• The guideline does not provide emphasis on periodic awareness and training of security, policy, best practices for social media. Further, it does not instruct agencies to periodically and constantly update their social media policy especially with respect of privacy & security, content filtering, and acceptable use.

The Web 2.0 Security Working Group (W20SWG) responsible for accessing information security issues surrounding Web 2.0 technologies in the Federal Government of USA has provided Guidelines and recommendations for using social media technologies in a manner that minimizes the risks involved in it [20]. The document encourages use of social media in government agencies on a strong business case and following adequate security guidelines. The recommendations include five categories of controls grouped into technical and non-technical controls. The technical controls are network and host controls and the non-technical controls are policy controls, acquisition controls and specialized trainings. These security controls should be adequately adapted to make integration of social media in e-governance secure.

The policy document for the use of social media in e-governance must include guidelines to achieve confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and data. It must provide guidelines for the use of various network security control measures including the use of trusted Internet connection, intrusion detection system, intrusion prevention system, Web content filtering methods like traffic filtering and deep packet inspections, creation of security zones, use of domain name security, multi-facet authentication and other emerging security technologies. Clear instructions must be included for the acquisition of social media services and service level agreements for acquisition of enhanced security, privacy and monitoring controls. Proper risk assessment and acceptance of residual risk must be made through some third party before deciding on the use of a particular social media service which must be reassessed periodically. Incorporating social media in e-governance especially in developing countries like India must necessarily include guidelines for security training and assessment of employee technical skills before granting access to social media sites for official purposes.

Different government agencies may require different employee access policy and thus a uniform access policy may not be fit for all government agencies. E.g. In an academic or research functionary of a government where employees are engaged in collaborative and knowledge sharing activities and employees’ professional development is vital to the development of organization access to specific social media sites may be desired. Therefore, policy must be flexibility to enable agencies to permit use of social media during office hours for professional developments wherever applicable. In such a case improvement in accountability system are desired which may be in the form of maintenance of log of all online activities undergone during the office time. The policy must include strict instructions for widely publicizing of all its social media accounts to control any confusion amount its users. The work account must be used for only official work and should always remain a property of the agency and must be open for inspection and surrendered on transfers or retirements. State and local government policies vary on scale and the level at which account management issues are addressed to and therefore, may differ considerably on management of social media accounts.

Acceptable use policy must set boundary around professional, personnel and agency use of social media tools. The existing standard code of conduct followed in government agencies do not address issues involved in employee online conduct especially when using social media tools. Therefore, a successful social media policy must directly address fresh issues of employee conduct associated with the use of social media. To avoid inconsistency between content on social media pages and other electronic and print media pages of the agency, the social media policy must contain strict rules and well defined penalties for its violation. Specific guidelines are to be devised for preparation of e-content, authentication; integrity and non-reputation of e-content and liability of authors needs to be defined.

Mohamad Tariq Banday, Muzamil M. Mattoo Advantages of social media like collaboration, participation, and empowerment have attracted governments to use it in governance for bringing together agencies, citizens, agencies work and information. It is used to promote e-services, increase transparency and improve trust on government. Persistent, pervasive and aggressive threats are faced by government information systems which gets intensified through the environment created by social media as it involves risks on multiple fronts including those related to behavior, ergonomic configuration, regulation and technology. When used in e-governance, social media may also poses risks of isolation, exclusion, violation of privacy, misuse of information and security threats. 

Therefore, governments have devised comprehensive frameworks, policies, guidelines and best practices to serve as key enabler for government organizations for the use of social media in governess. Different policies give emphasis on different elements and mostly point to the adherence of existing laws and regulations for securing data and information. Some policies suggest that the decision to incorporate social media in e-governance at an agency should be supported by strong business justifications but with adequate security and privacy controls while as others consider it necessary for inclusion or do not provide adequate guidelines for security and privacy of data. Indian government framework is in tune with other such policies and also includes policy for its multilingual cultural. However, it does not include guidelines for all identified core elements or does not provide sufficient guidelines to some of the parameters that a successful social media policy should have. There is a scope for improvement in each element included in this framework more importantly in the guidelines pertaining to security controls, acquisition of third party services, risk assessment, employees training, account management and legal.

Article Courtesy: https://file.scirp.org/Html/1-2680023_30781.htm