Manchester City’s German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan (centre) celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s third goal | AFP HYDERABAD MONDAY  MAY 23, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE 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 We never hiked VAT, won’t reduce it now, says Harish The agitation should continue till farmers get the right price and there is a constitutional guarantee for it. We too will support our farmers. We cannot bring back our farmer brothers and sisters who died, but we stand by you in your grief K Chandrasekhar Rao, Chief Minister Asks Centre to reduce cess to 2014 level, then talk about the States E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @Hyderabad FINANCE Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday made it amply clear that the Telangana government would not reduce Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel. He hit out at the Centre declaring its move in reducing petrol and diesel rates as “humbug and bogus”. Speaking to reporters here, Harish said that the State had not increased VAT from 2014 till date. “Hence, the question of decreasing VAT does not arise, as the State never increased VAT in the first place,” he sad. While reducing the central excise duty on petrol and diesel, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman requested: “I wish to exhort all State governments, especially the States where reduction wasn’t done during the last round (November 2021), to also implement a similar cut and give relief to the common man.” Responding to this, Harish said that the argument was inapplicable to Telangana which has never increased VAT. Harish demanded that the Central government reHumbug and duce the cess on petrol to diebogus claims, sel to the 2014 level and then says Fin Min talk about the States. Harish Rao said “When the BJP governthat the Centre ment came to power in March, had increased 2014, the cess on diesel was the cess by 75% just `3.46 and later they inin all these years creased the same to `31. Even and reduced today, the cess on diesel is them by 25%. `7.4 and the cess on petrol is “The Centre’s `16.40. Let the Centre reduce claims that it the cess to 2014 level. After reduced the that, it can talk about reducprices are tion of taxes by the State govhumbug and ernments,” a visibly annoyed bogus,” he said. Harish said. He said that the Centre had increased the cess on petroleum products by 75 per cent in all these years and reduced them by 25 per cent. “The Centre’s claims that it reduced the prices of petrol and diesel are humbug and bogus,” Harish alleged. On the price of domestic gas refills, Harish said that the gas cylinder prices had increased from `400 per refill to `1,050 now. But, the Centre ahd cut `200 for certain categories of consumers and not for all the consumers. Crude oil prices in May 2014 & now in May 2022 are almost the same. Yet petrol was `70 per litre then & `120 now. Telangana VAT has remained UNCHANGED. So what & who caused price rise & who is responsible?” — Tweet by KT Rama Rao, IT Minister Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao addresses a gathering in Chandigarh on Sunday Cess cut, no revenue Farmers can topple govts, they should Another blow impact on states, says Sitharaman unite to fight for their rights: KCR for BJP as MP E X P R E S S N E W S S E 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 Spe, cial 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 nonsharable, so states will not suffer any revenue loss, SitharaCentre to man said in a series of tweets. take `2.2 L cr “The excise duty reduction hit in a year of `8/litre on petrol and `6/litre Saturday’s excise on diesel (effective from today) duty cut would has entirely been made in Road cost the Centre & Infrastructure Cess (RIC). `1 lakh crore per Even in November ’21, the reannum. Revenue duction of `5/litre in petrol and implication of `10/litre in diesel was entirely the duty cut in made in RIC,” she added. November 2021 Sitharaman also juxtapose was `1.2 lakh the development expenditure crore. So, total incurred by the Modi governrevenue loss is ment so far (2014-2022) as `2.2 lakh crore, against the UPA (2004-2014), Sitharaman said saying the figures were `90.9 lakh crore and `49.2 lakh crore, respectively The Modi government spent . `24.85 lakh crore on food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies and `26.3 lakh crore on capital creation, while only `13.9 lakh crore was spent on subsidies during UPA rule, she said. Meanwhile, Maharashtra joined the list of a few states that cut 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 Rajasthan will reduce . VAT by `2.48 on petrol and `1.16 on diesel. Rao lamented that “we are conducting meetings like this even even after 75 years of Independence. This is painful. All of us should debate the present situation in the country”. “I bow my head and salute the farmers who lost their lives in the agitation,” Rao added. The Chief Minister said that there were power cuts and farmers’ suicides before the formation of Telangana. “Now, we are providing 24x7 power supply to farmers,” he said. He, however, said that the Central government wanted the States to fix meters to agriculture pumpsets. “I said in the Assembly that I will not fix meters. They (Centre) will not appreciate the governments and Chief Ministers who talk about the welfare of the farmers. They will bring pressure on us,” he said. EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday warned the BJP-led Central government that farmers can change governments if they wanted and exhorted the tillers of the country to fight unitedly for their rights. Addressing a meeting in Chandigarh, Rao said: “Kisaan chaahe to satta palat sakta hai. Badi baat nahi hai (If they want, the farmers can topple the government. It’s not a big deal).” Rao, along with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagw a n t M a n n , d i s t r i bu t e d cheques to the family members of soldiers who were martyred in Galwan clashes and also to kin of 600 farmers who died during the agitation against three farm laws of the Central government. Addressing the gathering, Between November, 2021 and May, 2022, the Telangana government did not reduce VAT on petrol and diesel. It earned `2,000 crore last month on the sale of petrol and diesel. It should decrease the VAT at least now — G Kishan Reddy, Union Minister for Tourism 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 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 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 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) P11 JOBS AT CENTRE OF GUJARAT POLL TUSSLE AHEAD OF ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 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 . “In addition to the Quad, President Biden will 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 Indo-Pacific will Narendra Modi Joe Biden 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. “We do not want to see While the issue looms large for the BJP, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal has already highlighted the issue in his three public rallies in the State P8 EXPRESS READ KTR reaches Switzerland to attend World Economic Forum Hyderabad: After back-to-back meeting with various global companies in London over the last four days, IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao left for the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, on Sunday. He is expected to meet with representatives of several prestigious companies from around the world at the WEF meetings starting Monday. The three-day World Economic Forum will feature a series of discussions | P3 Salil Parekh reappointed as CEO, MD of IT major Infosys for 5 years New Delhi: The board of IT services major Infosys has approved the reappointment of Salil Parekh as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of the company for five more years, till March 31, 2027, according to a regulatory filing. This is based on the recommendations of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) and subject to the approval of shareholders NATIONWIDE MAY 21 MAY 22 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 2,323 2,346 25 2,226 2,202 65 TELANGANA MAY 21 MAY 22 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 40 46 0 29 39 0 Modi leaves for Japan, bilateral talks with Biden also lined up Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi Urging all the farmers in the country to unite and fight till they get constitutional protection for their produce, including Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all crops, Rao said that the farmers should support the parties which back them in the next elections. He said that he too would extend support to the farmers’ agitation. Later, Rao distributed cheques to the kin of 28 farmers and five soldiers. The government of Telangana extended financial assistance of `3 lakh each to the kin of 693 farmers who lost their lives during the agitation and `10 lakh each to the kin of five martyred soldiers. Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, in his opening remarks, said that the Telangana government was giving Rythu Bandhu and Rythu Bima to farmers. unilateral changes to the status quo and we certainly don’t want to see military aggression,” Sullivan added. An Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will be launched during the the summit. It is an arrangement for further integration of the Indo-Pacific economies, setting standards and rules, particularly in new areas like the digital economy and also trying to ensure that there are secure and resilient supply chains. I will hold a bilateral meeting with President Biden, where we will discuss further consolidation of our relations Narendra Modi joins Trinamool E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Kolkata IN a fresh jolt for the BJP in West Bengal, its Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh left the party and returned to Mamata Banerjee’s fold. Arjun, whose repeated attacks on the West Bengal chief minister since joining the BJP h a d d r aw n sharp responses from the Trinamool Congress, was handed the TMC flag by Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday . Arjun Singh “This is the return of a boy back to his own home. I was with the TMC since its emergence as a political force. Because of some misunderstanding, I left,” he said. When asked whether he would resign as MP Arjun said, , “The party (TMC) will take the final call.” Last year, the BJP’s Asansol MP Babul Supriyo resigned from the post after joining the TMC. In the subsequent byelection, the TMC defeated the BJP, reducing the saffron camp’s share in the state’s Lok Sabha seats to 17.