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GST council reduces late fee on filing of GST returns

Small Savings schemes
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi (NVI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today announced that there will be no late fee at all for those who have no tax liability but have not filed GST returns for tax period July 2017 and January 2020.

While addressing the media after the first GST Council meeting after the lockdown, Sitharaman said, “In wake of COVID-19 pandemic, for taxpayers having aggregate turnover upto Rs 5 crore, further relief provided by waiver of late fees and interest if the returns in FORM GSTR-3B for the supplies effected in the months of May, June and July, 2020 are furnished by September, 2020.”

Maximum late fee has been capped at Rs 500 per return if there is any tax liability.

Several relief measures for small tax payers were announced, following the GST Council meeting.

“Small tax payers will have to pay no interest for late furnishing of GST returns till July 6, 2020; after that, the interest rate has been reduced to 9%, this will be valid till September 30, 2020,” the finance minister said.

Wild elephant radio collared, translocated to safe forest area in Tamil Nadu

New Delhi (NVI): A wild bull elephant, who was raiding crops in Thimmasandra village of Krishnagiri district in Tamil Nadu was successfully tracked, radio-collared and translocated to a safe forest area by the state forest department and Wildlife SOS.

“Around 25-year-old Bull elephant was being targeted by the local communities as the human-elephant conflict was rising due to crop raiding in Tamil Nadu,” the Wildlife SOS said in a statement.

Forest Department and Wildlife SOS Veterinary team in a two-day operation successfully translocated the elephant to safe forest habitat, it said.

Farmers and other people from the village in Denkanikottai taluk of the district were bothered about their crops as well as lives and appealed to the Forest Department to relocate the elephant.

The wild bull elephant had started coming out of the forest and regularly visiting their agricultural fields to feed on their crops.

This habitual pattern resulted in severe crop loss combined with human-elephant conflict which endangered their lives and property.

After monitoring the situation, the Forest Department contacted Wildlife SOS and requested expert assistance to translocate the wild elephant to a safe forest area to help mitigate the human-elephant conflict.

A joint operation – ‘Moving jumbo to safety’ – was conducted by a four-member team of Wildlife SOS, the Forest Department and local police in the early hours yesterday.

Once the elephant was tracked and sedated using tranquilizers, it was gently moved in a large vehicle and safely relocated to a reserve forest a safe distance away to help ensure that human-elephant conflict is mitigated, the Wildlife SOS said in a statement.

Prior to setting the animal free, the elephant was also radio-collared by Forest Officers to ensure that they can track movement patterns of the bull elephant while monitoring his behaviour, crop-raiding patterns, the statement read.

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder & CEO Wildlife SOS said, “Using Radio collars helps to create an early warning system which helps keep people and elephants both safe. Elephants in India are surviving in fragmented habitats that are human-dominated landscapes.

“With food easily available, in agricultural fields, crop-raiding elephants quickly get into conflict with people. This often results in tragic consequences for both humans and elephants. Quick action to stem such conflict will help prevent retaliation from local communities. Working with communities living in elephant areas to raise awareness about elephant conflict-avoidance behavior is essential to protect elephants.”

S Prabhu (IFS), DFO Hosur said, “Immediate action was needed to protect the elephants & people. We have worked with Wildlife SOS before, so we knew they would offer assistance to successfully translocate the elephant. Radio collaring will help in reducing stress on both humans and the elephant as it will alert people early, so preventive measures can be adopted immediately.”

Dr Arun A Sha Director- Research & Veterinary Operations, Wildlife SOS said, “In this case, we extended assistance to the Tamil Nadu Forest Dept to translocate the elephant to safe habitat with large watering holes and plenty of food. The conflict was successfully mitigated.”

The human-animal conflict, especially with regard to elephants in the country has become a sensitive matter now, after the tragic death of a pregnant elephant Kerala’s Malappuram recently after she was fed fire-cracker laden pineapple.

No need to panic over recent tremors in Delhi-NCR: National Seismology Centre

Mild earthquake hits Delhi
Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): There is no need to panic over the recent quakes in Delhi-NCR but it is vital to undertake preparedness and take precautionary measures in this regard, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) has said.

With nearly 14 earthquakes in 2 months, jolting the Delhi-NCR regions, there have been apprehensions if it is a prelude to a big temblor, but experts say there is nothing unusual in this seismic activity.

Speaking at a meeting convened by the National Disaster Management Authority yesterday, NCS Director BK Bansal said that given the seismic history of Delhi, minor earthquakes in Delhi-NCR are not unusual.

He said that there is no proven technology in the world to predict earthquakes with certainty in terms of location, time, and magnitude, according to an MHA statement.

The NDMA has requested the state governments to take steps that include ensuring compliance of building bye-laws to make upcoming construction earthquakes resilient and avoid the addition of vulnerable building stock.

It suggested they identify the vulnerable structures, especially lifeline buildings, and retrofit them. Private buildings should also be retrofitted in a phased manner.

According to experts, the Delhi-NCR region is very peculiar with regard to seismic activities. It has several fault lines that generate earthquakes, but it also feels the impact of quakes that are epicentral as far as the Hindukush mountains in Afghanistan and even in Nepal.

Bangladesh sees record 3,471 cases, 46 COVID-19 deaths in a day

(Image source: United News of Bangladesh)

New Delhi (NVI): Bangladesh today saw another surge in coronavirus cases and deaths. A whopping 3,471 new cases were reported, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 81,523.

The country also recorded a total of 46 deaths due to the novel coronavirus during this period, raising the death tally to 1,095, according to United News of Bangladesh.

Notably, the country crossed the 1,000 mark in death toll within 91 days after recording the first death on March 11.

So far, a total of 17,249 people have recovered from the deadly contagion, after 502 more patients made recovery.

Against the total number of detected cases, the recovery rate is 21.16 per cent and the mortality rate is 1.34 per cent in the country.

Coronavirus cases exceed 1.28 lakh in Pakistan

Representational Image

New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan is witnessing a spike in coronavirus cases on a daily basis and reported nearly 6,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 1,28,361 with at least 2,480 fatalities.

Looking at the breakdown of cases, Sindh province has reported 49,256 coronavirus cases, highest among all the provinces, while Punjab has 47,382 positive cases.

On the other hand, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has recorded 15,787 cases, Balochistan is at 7,673, Gilgit-Baltistan at 1,030, Islamabad at 6,699 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is at 534 cases so far, according to Geo News.

Ministry of National Health Services stated that nearly 38,391 patients have fully recovered from the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, Shehbaz Sharif, chief of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the latest top politician to be infected in the country.

Afghanistan’s COVID tally crosses 23,500, death toll at 446

New Delhi (NVI): Afghanistan today witnessed a rise in coronavirus cases with 656 new infections, taking the overall tally to 23,546 across the country, according to Afghan media reports.

Among the fresh cases, Kabul was again on top of the list with 326 new confirmed cases followed by Ghazni with 73 positive cases.

In addition, 37 cases were reported in Balkh, 33 in Kandahar, 20 in Nimroz, 18 in Laghman, 19 in Herat, 19 in Kunar, 17 in Faryab, 17 in Paktia, 16 in Nangarhar, 13 in Badghis, 12 in Baghlan, 10 in Sar-e-Pul, 8 in Helmand, 5 in Samangan and 5 in Farah.

Whereas, 20 patients have died due to COVID-19 virus in the country in the past 24 hours.

The new confirmed cases were reported in 18 provinces, with deaths in six provinces led by Herat with 13 (Kabul reported no deaths).

Other COVID-19 deaths were reported in Ghazni (2), Baghlan (2), Kandahar (1), Ghazni (1) and Sar-e-Pul (1).

Apart from this, Kabul with 400 recovered cases in the last 24 hours was on the top of the list followed by Herat (125), Balkh (32), Kandahar (12), Logar (10), Ghazni (8), Daikundi (7), Kunduz (4), Paktia (1), Nangarhar (1), Nimroz (1) and Badakhshan (1).

The Afghan Ministry of Public Health said 3,928 people have recovered while 446 from the respiratory disease in Afghanistan.

So far, 53,705 people have been tested for COVID-19 in the country, as per media reports.

Pakistan violates ceasefire in J&K’s Poonch

Representational Image (File)

Jammu (NVI): In another ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir today, Pakistani troops resorted to firing with small arms and intense mortar shelling in Kirni and Qasba sectors of Poonch district, defence officials said.

“On 12 Jun 2020 at about 1615 hours, Pak initiated unprovoked ceasefire violation by firing with small arms & intense shelling with Mortars along LoC in Kirni & Qasba sectors in District Poonch(J&K),” they said, adding that the Indian Army was retaliating befittingly.

This is the second ceasefire violation by the Pakistani army today, as earlier in the morning it started shelling forward areas along LoC in the Uri area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. A woman was killed while two civilians were injured in the intense shelling that continued till the afternoon.

Defence spokesman in Srinagar, Rajesh Kalia said that in the morning at 8:20 am, Pakistan initiated an unprovoked ceasefire violation along the LoC in Rampur sector of Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district by firing mortars and other weapons. “Befitting response is being given,” he said.

(More details awaited)

Defence Min extends delivery period of all capital acquisition contracts

RAJNATH-Singh
File Photo

New Delhi (NVI): Due to supply chain disruptions arising out of Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Defence has extended the delivery period for all existing capital acquisition contracts with the Indian vendors by four months.

An order to this effect was issued today by the acquisition wing of the Ministry, duly approved by Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. “Force Majeure shall be applicable for a period of four months i.e. 25th March 2020 to 24th July 2020,” the order read.

“Duration of this Force Majeure will be excluded while calculating the delay in delivery of contracted equipment/service and imposition of Liquidated Damages charges,” it added.

The measure is set to bring a big relief to the domestic defence industry, whose production schedules have been adversely affected by COVID-19 situation, the MoD said in a statement.

However, the MoD order added that the Indian vendor is free to deliver the contracted items well within the extended delivery period.

Further, as per the order, no separate contract specific amendments are required to be made to give effect to this decision.

“With respect to the foreign vendors they can approach the MoD which may consider cases on the basis of the situation prevailing in their respective countries,” MoD said.

Nepal’s COVID-19 tally hits 5,062 with 448 new cases

New Delhi (NVI): Nepal reported 448 new cases of coronavirus today, taking the national tally to 5,062, according to local media reports.

The highest single-day spike so far and the first time that number of single-day cases has crossed 400.

The country’s Ministry of Health and Population said, Of the newly infected, 424 are males and 24 females. In total, 4,709 males and 353 females have been recorded to have contracted the disease, so far.

At present, 72 of the 77 districts in the country have witnessed the transmission of COVID-19 virus in the country, as per media reports.

Sixteen people, four males and 12 females have been discharged following recovery. With this the total recovery cases stands at 877, of which 786 are males while 91 females.

The ministry also said, 309,914 samples have been tested for coronavirus in Nepal so far. Of these, 121,862 samples were tested through the PCR and 188,052 through the RDT.

Meanwhile, another COVID-19 related death has been confirmed taking the total number of fatalities in the country to 16.

Woman killed, 2 injured in Pak shelling along LoC in J&K’s Baramulla

Ceasefire
Representational image

Abid Bashir

Srinagar (NVI): A woman was killed and two civilians were injured in intense shelling by Pakistani troops along the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri area of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district today, police said.

A mortar shell hit the house of Akthar Begum (40), wife of Zahoor Ahmad at Batha-Gram village of Uri, killing her on the spot, they said.


Senior Superintendent of Police, Baramulla, Abdul Qayoom said the woman died after a mortar shell hit her house. “Two more civilians were injured in the shelling, who have been shifted to hospital,” he said. “A few residential houses and private vehicles also suffered damage in the shelling from across the LoC.”

Defence spokesman in Srinagar, Rajesh Kalia said that in the morning at 8:20 am, Pakistan initiated an unprovoked ceasefire violation along the LoC in Rampur sector of Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district by firing mortars and other weapons. “Befitting response is being given,” he said.

Earlier today, Pakistani troops resorted to heavy firing and mortar shelling in Uri which was retaliated to effectively by the India side.

A video grab from the ceasefire violation along LoC in Uri.

“Pakistani army resorted to unprovoked firing with the small arms and light mortars in Uri area. The troops responded effectively. The Pakistani army targeted army check posts in Hajipeer sector and other posts in Uri,” a defence official said told NVI earlier.

The firing started in the morning and continued till the afternoon, he said.

The intense shelling by Pakistani troops and retaliation by the Indian Army triggered panic in almost a dozen villages close to the LoC in Uri as many residents were seen running for safety, besides taking their livestock to safer places. Abdul Aziz Khanata, a village elder in Churunda village, told NVI over phone that people of dozens of Uri villages woke up to intense shelling from across the border.

“We took our livestock to safety and asked the people of our village to stay indoors and take safety precautions,” Khatana said, adding that the children and women were gripped by fear and none of them ventured out of their homes.

This year, a record number of 1600 ceasefire violations have been recorded in J&K on LoC where in Pakistan has used small arms to mortal shells besides indiscriminate gunfire, as per security officials. “Every time Pakistan resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation, the army has given them a befitting reply by retaliating effectively,” a defence official said.

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