Manchester City’s German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s third goal | afp kottayam l monday l may 23, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION mAN CITY champions, no quadruple for liverpool Man City showed the heart of champions to post a fighting win on Sunday, denying their rivals the top prize by one point INCREDIBLE COMEBACK TO SEAL TITLE DOMINANT RUN: fOURTH IN FIVE YEARS Man City were in a precarious position at one stage, tailing by two goals until the 76th minute. However, they mounted an incredible comeback, netting three goals within the space of six minutes to take the lead and clinch the title. Substitute Ilkay Gundogan was the hero of the match with two goals. Liverpool beat Wolves 3-1 but that was not enough ■ ■ This is Manchester City’s fourth Premier League title in five years Sunday’s title for City means Liverpool are out of the running for the quadruple — four major titles in a season. Liverpool had already won two and were in the running for two more (Premier League & Champions League) until Sunday’s matches | P11 93 TOTAL POINTS CITY GARNERED IN THE SEASON. lIVERPOOL HIT 92 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI No more fuel tax cut, it is Centre’s duty: Balagopal Karthik, Umran set for SA test With the T20 World Cup in Australia coming up in October 2022, the next few months are crucial in understanding how India are going to approach the global event. As the squad for the T20Is against South Africa was named, a look at the key talking points… Newcomer Reiterates that state reduced tax in excess of proportionate drop E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @T’Puram Fuel in Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Sunday ruled out further reduction in Kerala’s fuel tax, saying it was against the interests of the state. “Instead, the Centre should bring down the major hike that it effected in the fuel tax within a short period,” Balagopal said in a statement, justifying the state’s stand by listing its welfare measures and the gap in funds shared by Centre. He also repeated his claim that the state reduced fuel tax in excess of the proportionate reduction that resulted following the Centre’s tax cut. “The Centre’s reduction of excise duty on petrol by `8 ‘We reduced per litre and on diesel by `6 tax in 2018’ reduced their rates in the Finance Minister state by `10.41 and `8.36. The K N Balagopal exchequer will lose `3.97 and said the Kerala `3.68 on every litre of petrol government did and diesel, respectively This . not increase fuel is not just proportionate retax, unlike states duction. It should be seen as like UP, Goa, Kerala reducing the tax— Haryana, without any announcement Karnataka, — due to its peculiar tax Assam and structure,” he said. Chattisgarh. In He also claimed that the fact, it reduced LDF government did not inthe tax in 2018, crease fuel tax, unlike states he said like Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Assam (all BJP-ruled) and Chattisgarh (Congress-ruled). “In fact, we reduced tax on petrol from 31.08% to 30.08% and on diesel from 24.52% to 22.76% in 2018,” said Balagopal. He alleged the Oommen Chandy-led state government increased tax on petrol 13 times even when crude prices were low. The BJP too has hiked Centre’s tax immensely over the years, ● More on P4 said the minister.  Petrol Diesel T’Puram J107.46 J96.26 Kochi J105.76 J94.69 Kozhikode J106.14 J95.07 Having rattled enough batters across teams in the IPL, Jammu & Kashmir pacer Umran Malik and Punjab’s Arshdeep Singh have earned their maiden call-up to the Indian T20I side. While Umran made a name for himself with his express pace, sharp bouncers and yorkers at SRH (21 wickets till Sunday), Arshdeep, the 2018 U-19 World Cup winner, has been the standout performer (10 scalps at 7.7 RPO) for PBKS Cess cut, no revenue impact on states, says Sitharaman Comeback men As expected, Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya made their way back to the team after some impressive performances in the ongoing IPL. While Hardik led Gujarat Titans from the front as they finished at the top of the points table in the league stage, with 287 runs at a strike rate of 191.33, Karthik has literally smashed his way into the squad E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi A day after the Union government slashed central excise duty on fuel, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said its entire burden will be borne by the Centre as the reduction has been made in the Road and Infrastructure Cess, which is not shared with the states. Excise duty on petrol and diesel has four components — Basic excise duty , Special Additional excise duty (SAED), Road and Infrastructure Cess (RIC) and Agriculture and Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC). Basic excise duty is sharable with states but SAED, RIC & AIDC are non-sharable, so states will not suffer any revCentre to enue loss, Sitharaman said in take L2.2 L cr a series of tweets. hit in a year “The excise duty reduction Saturday’s excise of `8/litre on petrol and `6/ litre on diesel (effective from duty cut would today) has entirely been made cost the Centre in Road and Infrastructure J1 lakh crore per annum. Revenue Cess (RIC). Even in November ’21, the reduction of `5/ implication of litre in petrol and `10/litre in the duty cut in diesel was made in RIC,” she November 2021 said. She also juxtaposed the was J1.2 lakh development expenditure incrore. So, total curred by the Modi regime so revenue loss is far (2014-2022) as against the J2.2 lakh crore, UPA (2004-2014), saying it was Sitharaman said `90.9 lakh crore and `49.2 lakh crore, respectively . Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Sunday joined the list of a few states that cut value added tax (VAT) on petrol (by `2.08) and diesel (`1.44). Kerala had on Saturday cut the state tax on petrol and diesel by `2.41 and `1.36, respectively . P11 KSEB’s ‘smart’ move to hit users hard C y n t h i a C h a n d r a n @T’ Puram The KSEB is all set to slap an additional burden on consumers with its decision to switch to prepaid smart meters. About 1.3 crore consumers in Kerala will have to shell out at least `7,000 each to install smart meters as the exisiting devices will become obsolete by March 2025. The move will also render meter readers jobless. Since power theft in Kerala is negligible, the state will not press Intake Twenty20-AAP combo not to back any front in Thrikkakara | P4 K’taka bags lion’s share in FDI under IT sector | P5 Modi leaves for Quad, talks with Biden also lined up Narendra Modi Major misses Among those who were part of T20I series against Sri Lanka and were expected to retain their place, Sanju Samson has been left out. In the two innings he batted against Sri Lanka, Samson made 57 runs at a 154.05 SR. In IPL 2022, too, Rahul Tripathi (413 runs at 158.23 SR) is the only Indian to have scored more runs at a better SR than Samson (374 runs at 147.24 SR) Joe Biden Ye s h i Se l i @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden will have a bilateral meeting in Tokyo on the sidelines of the Quad Summit, both sides confirmed on Sunday . “President Biden will also have a distinct bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi. It won’t be part of the formal agenda of Quad, but significant security issues in the IndoPacific will come up and all of the Quad members also share an interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on board Air Force One enroute to Tokyo. The fourth Quad Summit begins on May 24. “I will hold a bilateral meeting with President Biden, where we will discuss further consolidation of our multi-faceted bilateral relations with US. We will also continue our dialogue on regional developments and contemporary global issues,’’ said Modi. Biden wants to send a message of deterrence to China on Taiwan. gain any additional revenue out of the prepaid smart meter project, a senior KSEB official told TNIE. “Consumers will have to pay a heavy price for setting up the meter as the Right to Consumer Act makes it mandatory to change the ex- isting one. With the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission also having changed the metering regulation, the 1.3 crore consumers have no other way the official said. ,” The price of a smart meter for single phase power connection starts from `3,000 and for three-phase power connection from `4,200. By the time the new meter is connected with data and server, the consumer will have to spend at least `7,000, KSEB officials say  ● More on P5 . EXPRESS READ Rakkilipattu singer Sangeetha Sajith dies T’Puram: Sangeetha Sajith, noted for lending her voice to A R Rahman’s superhit song Thanneerai Kadhalikkum from Mr Romeo and the hit number from Vidhyasagar’s Rakkilipattu, passed away in the capital on Sunday. The 46-year-old singer had been under treatment for kidney-related ailments. P4 Bypoll nearing in 19 local body wards T’Puram: The stage is set for another round of local body bypolls in Kerala. The State Election Commission has begun steps to revise the voters’ list in 19 wards. The bypolls in 12 grama panchayat wards, four municipal wards, two block panchayat divisions and one district panchayat division are likely by end of next month. P4