Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chairs the 47th meeting of the GST Council in Chandigarh on Tuesday | PTI HYDERABAD  WEDNESDAY  JUNE 29, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 16  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 | P10 ■ 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; 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. P8 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 BILLED as the world’s largest campus for startups, the THub 2.0 which has come up in Madhapur here was inaugurated by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday, making Hyderabad the best innovation ecosystem in India. The 10-storey innovation facility has been built on an area of 18 acres at a cost of about `400 crore. It can house 4,000 startups. After the formal inauguration, the Chief Minister said: “I want Telangana to be known as the startup State of India. Already, Hyderabad is offering the best standard of living. Now the State’s startups are providing valuable collaboration to IT, life sciences, aerospace, defence and automotive sectors including electric vehicles.” The Chief Minister, outlining the features of the State’s Rabi crop KMS 2020-2021 Kharif crop KMS 2021-2022 Number of mills where physical verification (PV) team went and conducted PV MARCH PV MAY PV MARCH PV MAY PV Number of mills where paddy shortage was found MARCH PV MAY PV MARCH PV MAY PV Number of mills where excess paddy was found MARCH PV MAY PV MARCH PV MAY PV Number of mills where physical verification could not be completed due to paddy in unaccountable position up to May 13, 2022 900 21 17 517 12 101 16 2,378 1,800 18 17 51 19 492 11,793 9,486 27 TELANGANA JUNE 27 JUNE 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 477 279 0 459 247 0 TAKE YOUR SHOT June 27 16,56,479 doses June 28 11,79,301 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,97,44,90,295 Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan are all smiles as they interact during the swearing-in ceremony of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan as Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court at the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday. The Chief Minister, who is at loggerheads with the Governor, visited the Raj Bhavan for the first time in nine months | P4 IT & Industries Minister KT Rama Rao takes Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on a tour of T-Hub 2.0 in Hyderabad on Tuesday startup ecosystem, said: “It is valued as one among the top 10 global ecosystems in affordable talent. It is among the top 15 startup ecosystems across Asia in attracting funds. In 2021, the startup ecosystem of Telangana was valued at $4.8 billion.” Describing the importance of startups, Rao said that many of them have also cre- tity at T-Hub to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. Our state’s startup policy is progressive. It has helped forge fruitful partnerships with both corporates and the academia. Around the fulcrum of T-Hub, we promoted sister institutions to support different requirements of an entrepreneur. Today, all of these institutions also, name- ated products and solutions relevant to social sectors like education, health, agriculture, sanitation and the environment. “All this has been made possible due to the very progressive policies in our State like TS-iPASS, TS-bPASS, and Telangana’s startup and innovation policy Rao said. ,” “Today I can proudly say we , have created a world-class en- AS in the previous years, girl students fared better than boys with highest pass percentage in both first and second year of 2021-2022 Inter mediate examinations. The Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) released the Intermediate results in the presence of Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy on Tuesday A total of 1.68 lakh . girls and 1.25 lakh boys cleared the first year exams while 1.65 lakh girls and 1.32 lakh boys secured pass marks in the second year. While the pass per cent of girls was 72.33, it was just 54.25 for boys for first year. In the second year, 75.28 per cent girls cleared the exam while 59.21 per cent of boys secured pass marks. Hyderabad: Four students, including three who were studying in the Intermediate and one SSC student, ended their life in different parts of Hyderabad on a day the Intermediate results were announced. Hours after the results were announced, suicides were reported from Saifabad, Meerpet and Kadthal. M Gowtham Kumar (18) of Saifabad, who completed his Intermediate I year (MPC), scored less marks in the results announced on Tuesday. His mother Sangeetha noticed him being upset and consoled him. After ensuring that he was normal, she went for work. CONTINUED ON P2 This year, as many as 9.07 lakh students appeared for the Intermediate exam, out of which 65.19 per cent of students in both first and second years cleared the exam. The percentage of students, both girls and boys, clearing first and second year is 63.32 per cent and 68.82 per cent respectively . With 76 pass percentage in first year and 78 per cent in second year, Medchal district has topped the list while Medak district was at the bottom of the table with pass percentage of 40. In the vocational course of Intermediate, Narayanpet district topped the list with Siddipet and Jagtiyal with the least pass percentage. CONTINUED ON P2 CONJOINED TWINS VANI, VEENA SECURE FIRST CLASS | P2 Rice millers playing mischief, finds FCI; TS fails to act Inspection details 17,073 15,208 21 S U N N Y B A S K I @ Hyderabad R E N U K A K A L PA N A @ Hyderabad attacked him with sharp weapons. They also reportedly slit IN a horrific hate crime in Ra- his throat with a cleaver. The jasthan’s Udaipur district, two killers then fled the scene. Soon men on Tuesday killed a tailor after the shocking incident, a who had recently expressed large crowd gathered at the support for suspended BJP spot and demanded tough acleader Nupur Sharma over con- tion against the culprits. troversial remarks on Rajasthan Chief Prophet Mohammad. Minister Ashok Gehlot The killers, who also tweeted that no effort posted videos of their will be spared in catchbrutal attack claiming ing the culprits and a they did it to avenge indetailed probe will be sult to Islam, have been conducted over the arrested. brutal incident. A curIn the video, they also few has been imposed Kanhaiya Lal threatened to target Nui n m a ny p a r t s o f pur Sharma and even Prime Udaipur and markets are shut. Minister Narendra Modi. Large gatherings have been The attackers, identified as banned and internet suspended Gos Mohammad and Riyaz, across Rajasthan for 24 hours. came on a bike at around 2.30 The victim, who lived in the pm on Tuesday. They entered Dhanmondi area of Udaipur, the tailoring shop of Kanhaiya had posted on social media in Lal (40) on the pretext of giving support of Nupur Shar ma measurements and suddenly some 10 days ago. NATIONWIDE JUNE 27 JUNE 28 JAB-O-METER Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths I WANT TS TO BE KNOWN AS INDIA’S STARTUP STATE: KCR Udaipur tailor butchered 65% clear Inter exams, girls fare better for supporting Nupur Four students die by suicide R A J E S H A S N A N I @ Jaipur 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. B K A R T H E E K @ Hyderabad THE Food Corporation of India (FCI), which along with the State Civil Supplies authorities conducted inspections at rice mills in March and May this year, has found that as many as 5,05,182 bags of paddy were missing in 102 mills across Telangana. It has also found discrepancies in 492 rice mills with regard to recent Kharif paddy supplied for custom milling. The FCI authorities have inspected 900 rice mills for Rabi crop 2020-2021 and 2,378 rice mills for Kharif crop 2021-2022 till March 30. In the second phase, the FCI physical verification (PV) teams inspected 517 rice mills for Rabi crop and 1,800 for Kharif crop. The FCI has sent a list of these rice mills along with the quantum of shortages to the State government with a request to initiate action against the defaulter millers. Interestingly the FCI author, ities have also found excess paddy in 33 rice mills — 17 in March and 16 in May This im. plies that several rice millers are playing mischief. Subsequent to inspections, the FCI stopped collecting custom milled rice as the State government failed to initiate any action against these erring rice mills. The stalemate continues in the State as nearly 90 lakh metric tonnes of paddy and custom milled rice are still lying with the rice millers. Meanwhile, the Civil Supplies Department has submitted proposals to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on how to dispose of these stocks of paddy . ly We-Hub, T-Works, TSIC, RICH and TASK have become champions in their own right,” he added. Those who took part in the inaugural included IT and Industries Minister K T Rama Rao, MP G Ranjith Reddy principal , secretary for IT and Industries Jayesh Ranjan and Cyient founder and T-Hub Chairman P3 BVR Mohan Reddy . EXPRESS READ 4 dead as ONGC chopper crashes into Arabian Sea Mumbai: Pawan Hans’ Sikorsky chopper with nine people on board crashed into the Arabian Sea, about 50 nautical miles from the Mumbai coast on Tuesday, killing four people. The helicopter, which was part of the six Sikorsky S-76D helicopters that Pawan Hans had recently leased, was 4-5 minutes away from ONGC’s Sagar Kiran rig when the incident took place, company officials said G7 calls out China over its dishonest trade practices Elmau castle: G7 leaders on Tuesday condemned China’s “nontransparent and market-distorting” international trade practices in an end-of-summit statement billed as “unprecedented” by the United States. The statement, which also pledged to reduce “strategic dependencies” on China, came hours before the leaders join a larger group of their counterparts at a NATO summit in Madrid. P9 Amid outrage, Zubair remanded in 4 more days of police custody E X P R ESS N E WS S E RV I C E @ 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. “It is apparent that Alt News’ alert vigilance was resented by those who use disinformation as a tool to polarise society,” the guild said in a statement. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria said, “Four-day police remand is being granted since the accused is to be taken to Bangaluru.” Appearing for Zubair, senior advocate Vrinda Grover argued Muhammad Zubair being taken to court in Delhi on Tuesday | PARVEEN NEGI 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 . But the prosecution contended that Zubair ought to be placed under police remand because his “intentional act of outraging religious emotions was on record.” A four-member police team will be sent to Zubair’s house in Bengaluru on Wednesday to recover evidence.