DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY SINCE 1932 STRONG MOMENTUM IN ECONOMY: FM Over `2 lakh cr: Highest monthly GST collection Audits, anti-evasion measures help boost gross GST collections in April AANCHAL MAGAZINE NEW DELHI, MAY 1 Strong leaders, laws, agencies bite citizens they vow to protect: Court pulls up ED GROSS GOODS and Services tax (GST) collections rose 12.4 per cent to touch a record-high of Rs 2.10 lakh crore in April (for yearendsalesinMarch),datareleased bytheUnionFinanceMinistryon Wednesday showed. The increasewasdrivenmainlyby13.4 percentyear-on-yearhigherdomestictransactions,alongwitha higher compliance in the backdrop of anti-evasion measures and audits taken by authorities. Thisisthehighestlevelof GST collectionsrecordedsincetheindirect tax reform kicked in almostsevenyearsagoinJuly2017, andthefirsttimethattheoverall mop-up crossed the Rs 2 lakh croremark.Theprevioushighest levelwasregisteredinApril2023 at Rs 1.87 lakh crore, reflecting year-end sales of March 2023. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, MAY 1 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AKRAM M & KIRAN PARASHAR BENGALURU, MAY 1 PRESIDENT IN AYODHYA President Droupadi Murmu offers prayers at the Ram temple in Ayodhya on Wednesday. ANI REPORT,PAGE5 Riding on his work as 4-time CM, ‘Mama’ looks at Delhi 2nd innings ANAND MOHAN J DEWAS, MAY 1 SHIVRAJ SINGH Chouhan’s apparent exhaustionfromundertaking a 16-hour DECISION daily poll cam2024 paign dissipates as a group of children runs towards his convoy of bulletproof vehicles. Asthecrowdswells,thesecu- THE STRONG pickup in gross GST collections was reflective of the year-end momentum that was visible last year too, while audits and investigations by both Central and state GST authorities aided the mop-up. Sustainability of this figure will depend on the consumption demand amid the rising heatwave. CM tells PM to cancel Prajwal diplomatic passport; MP seeks a week NIRBHAY THAKUR OBSERVINGTHAT“‘strong’leaders, laws and agencies generally come back to bite the very citizens they vow to protect”, a Delhi court has come down heavily on the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for invoking a stringent provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to record the statement of a doctor, an “ordinarycitizen”,consultedbyanaccused in a PMLA case. SpecialJudgeVishalGogneof the Rouse Avenue Courts made the observation while deciding an application for extension of interim bail of Amit Katyal, arrested by the ED last November in the land-for-jobs case. The ED case stems from a CBI probe into allegations that people were given employment in the Railways when RJD leader Lalu Prasad was Railways minister in return for land parcels gifted or sold cheap to his family and associates. High domestic transactions Chouhan on campaign trail in Vidisha. Anand Mohan J rity arrangement is thrown into disarray.Butthisdoesn'tdeterthe former Madhya Pradesh chief minister,whorollsdownthewindow and greets the children, while his wife Sadhna looks on. Chouhan, 65, is campaigning in a part of the Dewas belt which fallsunderVidishaLokSabhaconstituency,hishometurf,wherehe has returned to contest the Lok Sabha polls after about 20 years. A five-time MP from Vidisha, Chouhan wentontobecomethe CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 KARNATAKA CHIEF Minister Siddaramaiah wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday,urgingtheCentretocancel the diplomatic passport of JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is at the centre of a sexual abuse case, and ensure his return by making use of diplomatic and police channels. The letter came even as Prajwal, the grandson of JD(S) founder and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, sought seven days to appear before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe the allegations ofsexualabuseagainsthim.Italso came on a day the SIT issued noticestothe33-year-oldleaderand his father H D Revanna, who are named as accused based on the complaint of one of the women. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE PANIC IN DELHI NCR AS SCHOOLS GET BOMB THREAT EMAIL PAGE 3 Mumbai school principal Disquiet in Delhi over told to quit over her posts US, Aussie reports on on Hamas-Israel conflict ‘Indian spy operations’ PALLAVI SMART MUMBAI, MAY 1 THE PRINCIPAL of the Somaiya School in Mumbai has been asked by the school management to resign, allegedly over her posts on social media platform X on the issue of Palestine and the Hamas-Israel conflict. ParveenShaikh,whohashad a 12-year association with the Somaiya School in Vidyavihar and became its principal 7 years ago, has refused to resign “because I have given hundred per cent to the organisation”. Web portal OpIndia published a report on April 24, highlighting Shaikh’s likes and comments,viaherXhandle,onposts that were pro-Palestine and sympathetic to Hamas. Confirming that she was called by the management following the publication of the report, Shaikh said, “In a meeting heldonApril26,themanagement CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MAY 1 REPORTS in the US and Australian media about operationsallegedly by Indian “intelligence officials” overseas has caught the establishment offguard and there is a sense of disquietinNewDelhiatwhatitsees as a “concerted pushback” from its key Western strategic partners, sources said. On Tuesday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that “Indian spies were kicked out of Australia after being caught trying to steal secrets about sensitive defence projects and airport security, as well as classified information on Australia's trade relationships”. The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald said that two Indian“spies”wereaskedtoleave. “The so-called foreign ‘nest of spies’ disrupted by the Australian Security Intelligence CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In this corner of UP, Akhilesh & Dimple pick up the baton, and Mulayam’s legacy PAGE 1 ANCHOR LALMANI VERMA MAINPURI, KANNAUJ, MAY 1 SAMAJWADI PARTY chief AkhileshYadavhasalotatstakein the coming Lok Sabha elections. Politics is just one part of it. From two seats in the coming two phases,AkhileshandwifeDimple are contesting. Both these con- Dimple Yadav campaigns in Mainpuri. Lalmani Verma stituencies — Kannauj and Mainpuri,respectively—hadbeen won in the past by SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. As Akhilesh tries to fill his late father’s shoes, the result in these two adjoining constituencies, whichhehaschosentokeepclose home, will be closely tracked to see how far he has come. In2019,Dimplehadlostfrom Kannauj, later winning the Mainpuri seat held by Mulayam CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
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