Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chairs the 47th meeting of the GST Council in Chandigarh on Tuesday | PTI BENGALURU  WEDNESDAY  JUNE 29, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 20  LATE CITY EDITION OPPN-RULED STATES WANT GST COMPENSATION TO CONTINUE Change the revenue sharing formula or extend compensation period by five years, state finance ministers have demanded DEVOLVE 80% OF REVENUE TO STATES: DEO States’ protected revenue has been growing at 14% but cess collection has not risen at the same rate. Chhattisgarh Finance Minister T S Singh Deo said states need to get 70-80% of the GST revenue instead of 50% at present. “If the protective revenue provision is not continued, 50% formula should be changed to 80-70% for SGST and 20-30% for CGST,” said Deo | P13 ■ 11.6% ADDRESS SHORTFALL, SAYS BALAGOPAL ■ Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal said the compensation period should be extended as revenue growth is not as promised The GST Council meeting, being held in Chandigarh, will discuss the compensation mechanism. According to a recent Supreme Court ruling, the Council’s decisions are not binding on states THE WEIGHTED AVERAGE TAX RATE UNDER GST, ACCORDING TO A RESERVE BANK STUDY 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 Fadnavis meets Guv, demands Maha floor test Says govt has lost majority; Koshyari to seek legal opinion before calling special session S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I A N D RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ Mumbai/New Delhi THE ongoing political drama in Maharashtra moved into high gear on Tuesday after a BJP delegation led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and requested him to ask the Uddhav government to seek a floor test, saying it has lost its majority . Earlier in the day, Fadnavis flew into Delhi along with senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani to consult home minister Amit Shah and party chief J P Nadda. Sources said the Governor will seek legal opinion before deciding on a special session of Maharashtra Assembly for the floor test. As for beleaguered Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray he , made yet another emotional appeal to his party’s rebel legislators led by Eknath Shinde to save his chair, requesting them to return from Guwahati to thrash out a solution. Parallelly, his wife Rashmi called up family members of the rebels, invoking the family spirit and asking them to request their spouses to return. Fadnavis reportedly conveyed to the party brass that there were two options. One, staking the BJP’s claim with the backing of rebels by promising them proportional representation in the state cabinet; Zubair sent to 4 more days of police custody EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi A Delhi court on Tuesday remanded senior journalist and Alt News’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair in four-day police custody The police had arrest. ed him on Monday in connection with a four-year-old tweet, alleging it had led to a Twitter storm, hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity . Media and human rights organisations like Amnesty India, Editors Guild and Press Club of India strongly condemned the arrest, calling it extremely disturbing. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria said, “Four-day police remand is being granted since the accused is to be taken to Bengaluru.” Appearing for Zubair, senior advocate Vrinda Grover argued that he was being maliciously targeted and that the case as a whole borders on ridiculousness. She alleged that Zubair was targeted because of his religious identity. “Many have tweeted the same, the only difference between those handles and mine is my faith, my name P9 and my profession.” Delhi cops to bring Zubair to Bengaluru today Bengaluru: Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who was arrested on Monday by the special cell, Delhi police, will be brought to Bengaluru on Wednesday. A top police official said they are looking to recover critical digital evidence like his mobile phone and laptop, which he had allegedly used for posting on Twitter. Zubair is a P9 resident of Bengaluru. Rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde addresses the media in Guwahati | PTI Hindutva card Uddhav sought to play the Hindutva card, by deciding to push through a proposal to rename Aurangabad as Sambhaji Nagar in the state cabinet on Wednesday. The dilution of Hindutva by the Sena was one of the factors that triggered the rebellion and two, facilitating a no-confidence motion by the rebels. Within the rebel camp, there were different voices on the next steps. “While one section wants a merger with the BJP, others are in favour of retaining the Sena identity The latter . want a meeting with Uddhav find a way out,” said a person camped in Guwahati. He added that most of the rebels are not allowed to speak freely. “They are missing their families and constituencies. They are pressuring Shinde for a solution.” But Shinde rubbished claims that the rebels were in touch with Uddhav. P10 Advantage India as G7 wants Russia oil price cap EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi IN a bid to weaken Russia’s ability to fund the Ukraine war, the Group of Seven (G7) leaders on Tuesday agreed to develop a price cap mechanism for Russian oil. According to reports, the G7 leaders discussed the US’ suggestion that a price cap decided by consuming countries be imposed. While the contours of the scheme have not been announced, reports say Moscow will be allowed to recover production cost and earn a very small profit for its petroleum products. For India, which currently imports 10% of its total crude requirements from Russia, the move will be beneficial as it will help combat inflation. Before the Ukraine war, India used to import just 0.2% of its total oil needs from Russia. As the western countries put sanctions on Russian oil, Moscow started offering deep discounts for its products. Thus, Indian Oil Marketing Companies purchased Russian Ural crude oil at discounts as high as $30 per barrel. Reports say 40% Russian oil was purchased by private firms including Reliance Industries and Rosneft-backed Nayara Energy . However, experts say consuming countries can’t enforce such REPRESENTATIVE PICTURE PAST EXAMPLE A similar mechanism was launched in 1995 as part of the oil-for-food programme by the UN to allow Iraq to sell oil in exchange for food and medicine. However, the programme was mired in widespread corruption a price ceiling. “Russian oil is anyway available at $30-35 discount to India. Even if G7 imposes a ceiling on paper, there will be significant leakages as witnessed from Europe’s socalled ban on Russian energy I . don’t foresee any major shift in India’s import bill with a price ceiling on Russian crude,” said Debopam Chaudhury, chief economist and head of research at TruBoard Partners. Russia produces around 11 million barrels per day of crude oil, and exports 5-6 million barrels per day. Moscow earned around $110 billion in 2021 from oil exports, which accounts for 45% of its total income in 2021. NATIONWIDE JUNE 27 JUNE 28 JAB-O-METER Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 17,073 15,208 21 KARNATAKA JUNE 27 JUNE 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 617 767 0 TAKE YOUR SHOT 11,793 9,486 27 968 337 1 June 27 16,56,479 doses June 28 11,79,301 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,97,44,90,295 Tailor butchered for backing Nupur KERC shocker: Pay higher they also threatened to target Nupur Sharma and even Prime IN a horrific hate crime in Ra- Minister Narendra Modi. jasthan’s Udaipur disThe attackers, identrict, two men on Tuestified as Gos Mohamday killed a tailor who mad and Riyaz, came had recently expressed on a bike at around support for suspended 2.30 pm on Tuesday. BJP leader Nupur SharThey entered the taima over controversial loring shop of Kanremarks on Prophet haiya Lal (40) on the Mohammad. The killpretext of giving ers, who also posted measurements and Kanhaiya Lal videos of their brutal suddenly attacked attack claiming they did it to him with sharp weapons. They avenge insult to Islam, have also reportedly slit his throat been arrested. In the video, with a cleaver. The killers then R A J E S H A S N A N I @ Jaipur EXPRESS READ Union Ministry of Home Affairs seeks details of 40% commission scam Bengaluru: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has sought documents from the Karnataka Contractors’ Association over allegations by contractors against the state government that they have to pay 40 per cent commission to get projects sanctioned, said its president Kempanna here on Tuesday. This was also confirmed by Labour Minister A Shivaram Hebbar in Shivamogga, who said it is a good move by the central government. P4 fled the scene. Soon after the incident, a large crowd gathered at the spot and demanded tough action against the culprits. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot tweeted that no effort will be spared in catching the culprits and a detailed probe will be conducted over the brutal incident. Curfew has been imposed in many parts of Udaipur and markets are shut. Internet has been suspended across Rajasthan for 24 hours. The victim had posted on social media in support of Nupur Sharma some 10 days ago. power bills from July 1 B O S K Y K H A N N A @ Bengaluru JUST three months after increasing the power tariff by five paise per unit, consumers are again in for a shock as they have to shell out more per unit of power consumed from July 1, 2022. Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has approved the proposal submitted by the electricity supply companies (Escoms) to revise the power tariff and pass on the fuel cost adjustment charges on to the consumers. According to the KERC order, in order to meet the overall power purchase cost, during the fourth quarter for financial year 2022, it has been decided to allow Escoms to collect fuel adjustment charges (FAC) per unit in all the energy bills to be issued to their respective consumers from July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. CONTINUED ON: P4