A

 

Have an idea for a story?
Mi news@theotherpress.ca

¢ World Cancer Day
e The periodic table 150th anniversary

¢ DSU elections and U-Pass BC
referendum

..and more!

Douglas College announces 2019/20 budget

» Focus on modernization and building upgrades

 
 

Photo of Douglas College Library via LibraryThing.com

International news: Union

Katie Czenczek
News Editor

 

n February 1 Douglas College held two

forums for students, staff, faculty, and
administrators to provide feedback on the
proposed budget plan for this year. The
first forum was held for students to attend
from 12:30 to 2 pm and the second was held
from 3:30 to 4:30 pm for Douglas College
employees. Both were hosted at New West
Campus in the boardroom.

A newsletter highlighted the proposed
plans for the budget. This year is the last
in a five-year strategic plan that started in
2015. The DSU met with the college last
year to discuss some recommendations
that they think the college should
implement. They suggested that the college
switch to multi-year tuition planning, a
cost-recovery model for the bookstore, and
regular reviews of college services.

Kathy Denton, President of Douglas
College, spoke at the forum and listed some
of the main focuses for this year’s budget.

“One of the recommendations that
was in the document provided by the DSU
was a review of the bookstore and [to]
have a look at the model of the bookstore
[...] making it a cost-recovery as opposed
to profit-centred,” Denton said. “That’s
actually something that we're already
doing. We've had a group working on that

Budget of India 2019

» Announced by Piyush Goyal, Interim Finance Minister

Tania Arora
Staff Reporter

 

QO: February 1, 2019, Piyush Goyal
presented the Interim Union Budget

for 2019 to 2020.

Piyush Goyal is an Indian politician
who currently holds the position of
Minister of Railways & Minister of Coal
in the Government of India. From 2014
to 2017, he was the Minister of State
(Independent Charge) for Power, Coal,
New & Renewable Energy and Minister of
Mines for 2016 to 2017.

According to his website, Goyal is a
firm believer that “Good economics makes
for good politics. We are today at the cusp
of a development explosion.”

India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
couldn't present the budget this year due
to illness. Asa result, in January India's
President Ram Nath Kovind announced
Goyal as Interim Finance Minister and
Minister of Corporate Affairs. He was also
appointed to the position once before, in
May of 2018.

For the country, the Union Budget is
not just a piece of paper showing expenses

and revenue but rather a model depicting
the economy and its growth prospects.
The government plans yearlong how it
will allocate its resources to different
sectors and what return it will get from its
investments.

During his speech for the budget,
Goyal stated, “Inflation is a hidden and
unfair tax on the poor and the middle class.
The average rate of inflation during 2009 to
2014 was a backbreaking 10.1 percent.”

The budget this year could be seen
bringing relief to millions of people as the
Minister announced a full tax rebate for
people with annual income of up to five
lakh rupees (about $9,300 CAD). Those
who make investments in funds and
equities with a gross income up to 6.5 lakh
rupees won't be required to pay tax. The
rental income threshold for Tax Deducted
at Source (TDS) was raised to 2.4 lakh
rupees from the previous 1.8 lakh. The TDS
threshold on income from interest earned
on deposits was raised as well.

Arushee Singh Rana, an Indian citizen
preparing for the Indian Administrative
Service exam, said in an interview with
the Other Press, “The government could
be actually seen thinking and executing

with a few objectives in mind. One is yes,
we've agreed that we want to change fully to
cost-recovery on all course material-related
items in the bookstore and just retain a
profit-margin on the merchandising—the
hoodies, hats, and that sort of thing—

but definitely in recognition of trying

to continue to make course materials
affordable for students.”

Another area that the budget focuses
on is improving Douglas College's
technology. In particular, said Denton, they
wanted to concentrate on infrastructure.

“That’s really to close some gaps
in terms of some of our aging IT
infrastructure,” said Denton in regard to
the emphasis on investing in technology
for the upcoming year.

Based on Douglas College’s strategic
risk assessment, they found that the
college’s technology is at a critical risk,
which is why the college plans to invest
$170,000 in addressing this.

In addition, the New Westminster
campus library is being upgraded, and
the college is still in the planning process
of how and where students will be able to
work in the meantime. Over $100,000 will
be put towards the project.

Interestingly enough, Denton also
highlighted that there are talks about
adding student housing to Douglas
College.

measures to benefit
the citizens. The
tax rebates have
brought huge saving
opportunities for
citizens.”
Promoting
the infrastructure
development,
Goyal announced
the tripling of
construction of
rural roads under
the Pradhan
Mantri Gram Sadak
Yojana (PMGSY),
a nationwide plan
for improving road
connectivity to
remote villages.
Goyal stated, “15.80
lakh habitations
out of a total of
17.84 lakh habitations have already been
connected with pucca roads and work is
going on to complete the rest very soon.”
Harnoor Kaur Abrol, an international
Indian student at Douglas College, said in
an interview with the Other Press, “I highly

“Student housing, we're working
on that,” she said. “Some of you may be
familiar with the government's initiative for
affordable housing, which includes student
housing. We are working on a proposal for
the ministry that could potentially lead to
adding student housing into this campus.”

With regard to student tuition, the
domestic tuition increase this year works
out to $2.05 per credit taken at the college.
International tuition will not be increased
for the next two years. The last time that
international tuition was increased was in
2017, when it went up by nine percent.

Denton said that in terms of the ratio
of domestic to international students, they
were happy with the current numbers for
enrolment.

“We're always trying to manage what
is sort of optimal on the correlation or
proportions of domestic and international
student populations,” she said. “We're
looking out to three years in 2022 and
maintaining it at that 34 percent mark for
international [students] of our total full-
time enrolment.”

Following the presentation, the
DSU and other students asked questions
about whether or not the college should
be called a public institution when the
college receives more funding from student
tuition—and in particular, international
tuition—than government funding.

 

appreciate the work by the government and
how the pace of work has been [hastened]
considering the fact that India always
comes up with great measures but lacks in
its implementation, which the Ministers
have kept in mind this time.”