01-11-2021 The Asian Independent

8 01-11-2021 to 15-11-2021 NEWS
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
Centre likely to seek reports from NCB on handling
of cruise ship drug case involving Aryan khan
New Delhi.The Union Ministry
of Home Affairs (MHA) is
mulling to seek a report from
the Narcotics Control Bureau
over the handling of the recent
arrests made in the cruise ship
drug case involving Bollywood
superstar Shahrukh Khan's son
Aryan Khan, sources said here
on Monday.
According to sources, the
Ministry has taken a serious
view on the alleged charges of
corruption against the Mumbai
Zonal Director of NCB Sameer
Wankhede and also the way the
arrests were made in the case.
They also said that top officials
of the Ministry have
expressed their reservations on
the way the details of the investigation
were leaked to the
media that made a perception
that Aryan khan was selectively
targeted being a son of a
celebrity and the probe agency
did not have adequate evidence
against the arrested persons.
Sources, aware of these
developments, claimed that
Union Home Minister Amit
Shah was also annoyed with the
NCB officials about the new
turns in the case which took
place during the last week, and
reportedly spoke to some BJP
leaders in Mumbai to know the
facts in the case.
To look into the alleged corruption
charges levelled against
Wankhede, the NCB constituted
a five-member probe team
under the Deputy Director
General (DDG) of northern
region Gyaneshwar Singh,
which visited the NCB zonal
office in Mumbai on October
27 and took statement of
Sameer Wankhede.
However, the vigilance
team allowed him to remain
in-charge of this case and to
continue his probe in the
drugs case.
The five-member probe
team also collected some
documents and recordings
from the Mumbai office, the
DDG said, adding that the
vigilance team also summoned
the witnesses to
record their statements.
The NCB ordered a vigilance
inquiry into the claims
made by a witness in the
cruise drug case, Prabhakar
Sail, who alleged that an
extortion bid of Rs 25 crore
was made by some agency
officials, including its
Mumbai zonal director
Sameer Wankhede to set free
film Aryan Khan.
The sources in the agency
also said that the vigilance
team will also look into the
close proximity of an independent
witness Kiran
Gosavi with Aryan Khan
too. However, Gosavi, an
independent witness in the
drugs-on-cruise case, was
arrested by the Pune Police
in connection with a 2018
cheating case registered
against him here in
Maharashtra.
Imran Khan would have
been better suited to a job
in PCB, Sindh CM reacts
New Delhi. Pakistan's Sindh
Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah
believes Prime Minister Imran
Khan would have been better
suited to a job at the Pakistan
Cricket Board (PCB) instead of
serving as the country's premier,
Geo News reported.
Talking to the media in
Islamabad, the Sindh CM criticised
the ruling government,
saying that everyone knows
how the PTI won the elections.
"Now the people of PTI will
forfeit their guarantees in the
elections because the tide has
now turned," he said confidently.
Commenting on how the
PTI government handled the
chaos in the country as a result
of protests by the proscribed
Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan
(TLP), the CM said that precious
lives were lost due to the
incompetence of the government
on the issue of TLP.
The PTI government does
things it can't spit out or digest,
CM Shah said, calling for all
stakeholders to sit down and
think about what is in the country's
interest.
Expressing hope that the
Pakistan cricket team will win
the ongoing T20 World Cup,
the CM said that he has heard
that Pakistan Prime Minister
Imran Khan has said that the
Pakistan team is playing well
because of him [Imran Khan].
"I had said earlier [too], that it
is better for PM Imran Khan to
work in the Pakistan Cricket
Board," CM Shah said sarcastically,
the report said.
GST collection for Oct at over Rs 1.30 lakh cr
New Delhi : The GST collection of
the government maintained its
momentum this fiscal year despite
Covid disruption as a pickup in economic
recovery is shoring up corporate
earnings.
The gross GST revenue collected in
the month of October 2021 stood at Rs
1,30,127 crore, which is a growth of
24 per cent over the GST revenues in
the same month last year and 36 per
cent over 2019-20.
The revenue for October is also the
second highest ever since introduction
of GST, second only to that in April
2021, which is related to year-end revenues.
This is very much in line with the
trend in economic recovery. This is
also evident from the trend in the e-
way bills generated every month since
the second wave, a finance ministry
statement said.
According to the statement, of the
total October GST collection, CGST is
Rs 23,861 crore, SGST is Rs 30,421
crore, IGST is Rs 67,361 crore
(including Rs 32,998 crore collected
on import of goods) and Cess is Rs
8,484 crore (including Rs 699 crore
collected on import of goods).
The government has settled Rs
27,310 crore to CGST and Rs 22,394
crore to SGST from IGST as regular
settlement. The total revenue of
Centre and the States after regular settlements
in the month of October 2021
is Rs 51,171 crore for CGST and Ts
52,815 crore for the SGST.
During the month, revenues from
import of goods was 39 per cent higher
and the revenues from domestic
transaction (including import of services)
are 19 per cent higher than the
revenues from these sources during
the same month last year.
The revenues would have still been
higher if the sales of cars and other
products had not been affected on
account of disruption in supply of
semi-conductors, the finance ministry
said.
The revenues have also been aided
due to the efforts of the State and
Central tax administration resulting in
increased compliance over previous
months, the ministry added.
In addition to action against individual
tax evaders, this has been a
result of the multipronged approach
followed by the GST Council. On the
one hand, various measures have been
taken to ease compliance like nil filing
through SMS, enabling Quarterly
Return Monthly Payment (QRMP)
system and auto-population of return.
During the past one year, GSTN has
augmented the system capacity considerably
to improve user experience.
On the other hand, the Council has
also taken various steps to discourage
non-compliant behaviour, like blocking
of e-way bills for non-filing of
returns, system-based suspension of
registration of taxpayers who have
failed to file six returns in a row and
blocking of credit for return defaulters.
The number of returns (GSTR-3B)
of every month/quarter by the end of
next month is a good parameter indicating
timely payment of returns and
filing of returns. After the last date of
filing of returns, special efforts are
undertaken to ensure compliance by
the end of the month in form of messaging
by GSTN and close follow up
by the Centre and State tax administration.
This has also been aided by the fact
that at various occasions, the Council
decided to waive late fee allowing
people to file old returns and come upto-date
in filing of returns. With more
and more taxpayers filing the returns
every month, the percentage of returns
of old period filed in any month has
been increasing continuously.
About 1.5 crore returns were filed
in the month of July 2021 as taxpayers
filed returns of past months taking
benefit of the relaxation given due to
Covid. With improvement in return
filing, the focus of the GST Council
has been on timely filing of GSTR-1,
the statement containing details of
invoices. This statement is critical to
ensure discipline in taking input tax
credit. Various steps have been taken
to ensure timely filing of GSTR-1.
Overall, the impact of these efforts
has ensured increased compliance and
higher revenues. As a part of overall
efforts to plug evasion, more steps to
restrict fake ITC are under consideration
of the GST Council, the ministry
statement said.