TOTAL GOVERNMENT LIABILITIES RISE TO RS 83.4 LAKH CRORE IN Q3:
FINANCE MINISTRY REPORT
Total liabilities of the
government increased to Rs 83.40 lakh crore at the end of the December 2018
quarter from Rs 82.03 lakh crore in the previous quarter of the current fiscal,
latest data on public debt showed Friday. Public debt accounted for 89.5 per
cent of total outstanding liabilities at the end of December 2018 with internal
debt accounting for 83.3 per cent share. Nearly 29.27 per cent of the
outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of less than five years.
The holding pattern indicates a share of 40.5 per cent for commercial banks and
24.6 per cent for insurance companies by end-December 2018. G-Sec yields have
shown a softening trend in third quarter of the fiscal with the decrease in
weighted average yield of primary issuances to 7.82 per cent from 8.01 per cent
in the last quarter, reflecting several developments such as strengthening in
the value of the rupee against the dollar and the RBI injecting durable
liquidity in the system through OMO (purchase), said the quarterly Report on
Debt Management, released by the finance ministry. During the October-December
2018 period, the central government issued dated securities worth Rs 1.27 lakh
crore as against Rs 1.64 lakh crore in the year-ago period. The temporary cash
flow mismatches were bridged through issuances of cash management bills
amounting to Rs 45,000 crore during the quarter.
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GOVERNMENT EXPECTS FURTHER FALL IN GST REVENUES, STRUGGLES ON
DIRECT TAX MOP-UP
Government revenue will be
under pressure in the current fiscal year with a senior finance ministry
official on Friday suggesting that there could be a further fall in GST revenue
while the direct tax numbers may just be about near the revised target. But the
official also said there would be some savings on capital expenditure side that
could help bridge the gap. He, however, did not give the details on the quantum
of savings and also didn't clarify if these savings would come from a cut in
the capital expenditure. Some of the revenue expenditures such as interest
payment obligations and subsidy have already been rolled over to the next
fiscal to keep fiscal deficit under check in view of falling tax revenues. We
will probably do direct taxes as per revised estimates, but on indirect taxes,
there might be some shortfall further in the revised estimates, said Subhash
Chandra Garg. But the fiscal deficit figure of 3.4 per cent would be met as
there would be some savings on the expenditure sides as well, Garg said. The direct
tax target was revised upwards to Rs 12 lakh crore for 2018-19 fiscal while for
GST, the target was further lowered for the current fiscal. The government had
budgeted to collect over Rs 7.43 lakh crore from Goods and Services Tax (GST)
in the current fiscal ending March. However, in the revised estimates, the
revenue mop-up has been pegged at over Rs 6.43 lakh crore.
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5 FIRM OWNERS BOOKED FOR RS 19-CR GST FRAUD
After detecting tax
evasion and taking the input tax credit, the state Excise and Taxation
Department has identified five shell firms that perpetrated the fraud under the
Goods and Services Tax (GST) by cheating the department of Rs18.97 crore in
Hisar district. A spokesperson for the department said the police had registered
five criminal cases against the traders who floated shell firms to deal in
cotton. These traders forged the documents by preparing fake invoices and
receipts which were used in claiming the ITC from the government under the GST
norms. They had been booked under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420
(fraud), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for
purpose of cheating), 471 (using forged documents or electronic records as
genuine) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. In his complaint, Excise
and Taxation Officer Mahavir Godara said during the site verification of these
firms at the given addresses, no such establishments found existing The CGST team
had arrested four persons from Sirsa for allegedly forging documents to float
bogus firms to sell cotton without paying the GST.
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SUBHASH CHANDRA GARG DESIGNATED AS FINANCE SECRETARY
Subhash Chandra Garg was on
Friday designated as the Finance Secretary according to a Personnel Ministry
order. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has approved designating Garg as the Finance Secretary, it said.
58-year-old Garg, a 1983 batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, has been working
as the Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs since June 2017.
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GUJARAT: 12% REBATE FOR ONLINE TAX PAYMENT
The Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation on Thursday has announced a tax rebate up to 12% to those paying
tax in advance The standing committee chairman informed that the rebate scheme
will be implemented for one month. We have announced a rebate scheme for the
taxpayers. For those paying their property tax in advance will get a 10%
discount and those making online transaction will get an additional 2% benefit,
said Amul Bhatt. The scheme will be implemented from April 1, 2019. The civic
body made the announcement a month advance keeping in mind the general
election. Once the code of conduct will be implemented, no such announcement
could be made. In the current financial year, 1,35,301 people paid tax online
which amounts to Rs 96.83 crore. Of which 7,585 people used mobile application
and 18,776 people paid via cards.
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INDIA’S SUPER-RICH APPEAR TO BE GIVING UP ON GIVING BACK
Ultra-high net worth
individuals (UHNWIs), or those with a net worth of more than $50 million, in
India, other than Wipro Ltd founder Azim Premji, are giving less than they did
five years ago. However, the number of UHNWI households has grown by 12% in
this period, going by the findings of Bain and Co.’s India Philanthropy Report
2019. Individual donations have been on the rise in India but the amounts are
not large enough. Contributions of ₹10 crore or more
constitute about 55% of individual philanthropy, but Premji’s
donations made through Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives Pvt. Ltd account
for more than 80% of this. Excluding donations by Premji, such donations have
declined by 4% in India since 2014, according to the report. The social sector
in India depends on funding from the government, private individuals, corporate
houses and foreign sources. The government is the largest contributor to social
sector funding, though private philanthropy is growing at a faster pace of 15%
every year from 2014, compared to the government’s 10%. Foreign sources were
hit in 2018 because of increased Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act rules. Public
infrastructure funding in sectors like education and health is woefully low, so
UHNWIs must lead the way. In India, if you look at the rate at which net worth
and gross domestic product are rising, giving by the top 800 families has not
kept pace, said Anant Bhagwati. This is particularly problematic, given that
UHNWI households have grown at 12% over the past five years and are expected to
double in both volume and wealth from 160,600 households with ₹153,000
crore combined net worth in 2017, to 330,400 households with ₹352,000
crore combined net worth in 2022, the report says. Most Indian UHNWIs—and a
vast majority of them inherit their wealth—prefer to leave their money to
family. In developed countries, billionaires tend to give away more of their
wealth, in part because of tax regimes that favour philanthropy and the
existence of social sector organizations that can run large projects, which
have measurable impact. India has pledged to meet the United Nations’ 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Bain estimates suggest that India
needs about ₹26 trillion in annual funding to fulfil even five of the SDGs
by 2030. Even in the most optimistic scenario—in which India sustains its
current economic growth rate and its current funding growth rate, all
philanthropic capital is channelled towards the SDGs, there is no leakage in
deployment, and the funding required to meet the SDGs doesn’t increase—the
nation will still face an annual funding gap of around ₹4.2
trillion. Depending on how each of these factors evolves, the actual shortfall
could be 2-4 times that amount, the report said.
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RAFALE DOCUMENTS NOT STOLEN, PETITIONERS USED PHOTOCOPIES:
ATTORNEY GENERAL
Attorney General K K
Venugopal Friday claimed the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence
Ministry and that what he meant in his submission before the Supreme Court was
that petitioners in the application used photocopies of the original papers,
deemed secret by the government. His comments in the apex court on Wednesday
that Rafale fighter jet deal documents were stolen caused a political row, with
Rahul Gandhi targeting the government over stealing of such sensitive papers
and seeking a criminal investigation. I am told that the opposition has alleged
what was argued (in SC) was that files had been stolen from the Defence
Ministry. This is wholly incorrect. The statement that files have been stolen
is wholly incorrect, he told, in an apparent damage-control exercise. Official
sources said the AG's use of word stolen was probably stronger and could have
been avoided. The government had also warned The Hindu newspapers with a case
under Official Secrets Act for publishing articles based on these documents.
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AMAZON KEY SELLER CLOUDTAIL FOUND GUILTY OF PROFITEERING
The National
Anti-profiteering Authority has found the online seller Cloudtail– partly owned
by Amazon Asia – guilty of profiteering to the tune of Rs 10.8 lakh through
sale of printer cartridges at a higher base price after Goods and Services Tax
(GST) rates were reduced in November, 2017. This neutralised the benefit that
should have accrued to consumers, the order said, and asked the company to
deposit the profiteered amount to the consumer welfare fund with 18% interest. Cloudtail
said it was a retailer selling products manufactured by other vendors, and
argued that it had no control over the maximum retail price (MRP) affixed by
the manufacturer or importer. In the present case, we are concerned with the
supplier, which has increased the price even after reduction in GST tax rate.
The passing of the benefit by the distributor or retailer does not rest on the
fact that the manufacturer or his supplier should have passed on the same benefit
to him first, NAA said. Further, the order said that Cloudtail not only
increased the base price but also charged GST on the increased base price. The
move followed a direction from NAA, which received a clutch of complaints about
the e-commerce firms allegedly not passing on the benefit of tax rate cuts to
the buyers, after the GST Council lowered the tax for over 220 items on
November 15 last year. In a particular case related to e-commerce company
Flipkart last year, the company had informed NAA that there were 7,254 cases in
which the GST rates, at the time of booking the orders on the platform, was
higher than those prevalent at the time of delivery. In all these cases, the
e-commerce firm said, it had initiated the refund process as per the instructions
from the sellers.
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ENGINEERING EXPORTS SET TO TOUCH $80 BILLION IN FY19
Engineering exports is set
to touch an all-time high of $80 billion during the current fiscal, said a top
official of EEPC India. Last fiscal (2017-18), we exported goods worth $76.2
billion, which was a three-year high, said Mahesh K. Desai. We did exports of
$70.7 billion in 2014-15. This fiscal, it is expected to touch $80 billion.
During fiscal 2017-18, India exported merchandise goods valued at $302.8
billion of which engineering goods accounted for $76.2 billion, said
Chandrashekhar H. Nadiger. Mr. Desai said that EEPC had been working on
Industry 4.0 for the last two years for helping small and medium enterprises to
equip themselves and overcome the challenges in terms of upgrading the
technology. Industry 4.0 was on the top of our agenda. Tamil Nadu was at the
forefront of it. Mentioning that southern region accounted for 22% of the
country’s total exports, Mr. Nadiger said Tamil Nadu led the chart, followed by
Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. According to him, engineering exports
from southern region for 2017-18 stood at $17 billion of which Tamil Nadu
accounted for $11 billion. This year too, the growth pattern would be similar.
This is due to higher technology intervention adopted by the local industries,
he said.
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ENFORCEMENT DIRECTORATE INVESTIGATING PHILIP MORRIS, GODFREY
PHILLIPS: SOURCE
India's main financial
crime-fighting agency is investigating Philip Morris International Inc and its
Indian partner Godfrey Phillips for alleged violation of laws in India, a
senior directorate source told. Philip Morris has for years paid manufacturing
costs to Godfrey Phillips to make its Marlboro cigarettes, circumventing a
nine-year-old government ban on foreign direct investment in the industry,
Reuters reported based on a review of dozens of internal company documents,
which were dated between May 2009 and January 2018. Three former officials and
one former head of the Enforcement Directorate had reviewed the Philip Morris
documents for Reuters and said the dealings should be investigated for
circumventing India's foreign investment rules. The Enforcement Directorate has
been looking into both the companies and the scope of the investigation is much
broader than the alleged foreign investment law violations highlighted the
source said. Both companies are being looked into, said the source, who eclined
to be named citing sensitivity of the investigation.
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GOVERNMENT APPOINTS FIVE SPS IN CBI
The government on Friday appointed
five superintendents of police in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),
according to a Personnel Ministry order. Of these five officers, three -- Sudha
Singh, Thomson Jose and Jayadevan A -- are from the Indian Police Service
(IPS), it said. The two other officers belong to the Indian Revenue Service.
All these officers have been appointed as SP for four years, it said.
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PRESS STATEMENT
On the official visit to
India, General Raymond Thomas, Commander US Special Operations Command, US
Army, called on the Army Chief General Bipin Rawat. Both the Generals
deliberated on the developing regional security environment, issue of global
terrorism and Pakistan's continued support to terrorism was also discussed.
Acknowledging India's role in peace and stability in the region, Gen Raymond
emphasised on the need for further military cooperation in the field of
technology and military to military exchanges between the two countries. In the
current scenario, Indian Army remains fully prepared for emerging challenges.
In the last three weeks, disinformation campaign by the adversary on digital
media has increased. All ranks have been well sensitised of these
disinformation campaigns and all ranks can see through the lie, deceit &
deception of the terror sponsors.
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P CHIDAMBARAM, SON'S INTERIM PROTECTION FROM ARREST EXTENDED
TILL MARCH 25
A Delhi court Friday extended
till March 25 the interim protection from arrest granted to former Union
minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis scam cases filed
by the CBI and the ED. During the hearing senior advocates Kapil Sibal and A M
Sinhgvi, appearing for the father-son duo, opposed the adjournment sought by
the agencies, saying a lot of time has been spent since filing of the
applications.
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CAUGHT IN MUMBAI: 30 KG DRIED SEAHORSE MEANT FOR CHINESE
MEDICINE BEING SMUGGLED TO MALAYSIA
Maharashtra State Mangrove
Cell has arrested a 49-year old man during the wee hours of Thursday morning
for smuggling 30 kg of dried Seahorse — a species protected under Schedule I of
the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The man was first detained by the custom
officials at the Mumbai International airport on Wednesday while he was on his
way to board a Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur flight. As per experts, seahorses are mostly
collected from the coastal region of Southern India and are illegally smuggled
to countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore where dried seahorses are used
for making traditional Chinese medicines including aphrodisiac. Their smuggling
commands a good but not fixed price tag. Makarand Ghodke, Mangrove Cell
informed that it was during the bag scanning at the airport the CISF staff
found the suspicious looking item, which was packed and then plastic wrapped in
the bag belonging to the accused and alerted the Customs.
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OVER 40 PAKISTAN NATIONALS GET INDIA CITIZENSHIP
Pune district collector on
Thursday gave Indian citizenship to over 40 Pakistani nationals staying in Pune
for long. Pune Collector Naval Kishore Ram said, A total of 45 nationals from
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh have been given Indian citizenship. Most
of them are Pakistani nationals. According to officials, most of these
applicants were from Sindhi community who had migrated to India but did not
have citizenship. One of the applicants had come to India from Pakistan when he
was only 40 days old and now he has spent 40 years in India but did not have
the citizenship of the country.
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IAF PILOTS WERE ON TARGETED MISSION TO DESTROY TERROR FACILITY
IN PAKISTAN, NOT TO SHOWER PETALS: RAJNATH
Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh said on Friday that the IAF pilots were on a targeted mission to
destroy terrorist facility in Pakistan and did not go on any pleasure trip or
to shower petals. He said Pakistan's desperation after the air strike in
Balakot was reasonable, but it is sad that a few people in India are in a shock
and asking for proof of its success. IAF pilots had targeted terrorist facility
based on credible intelligence input to destroy them. The pilots had not entered
Pakistan for any pleasure trip or to shower petals, Singh told. IAF pilots have
made Pakistan realise that it would have to pay a heavy price if the terrorists
operate from its land, the senior BJP leader said. Warriors don't count people
killed in war. But the Congress and its friends have a misleading and dangerous
stance. They give respect to terrorists such as Osama Bin Laden and Hafiz Saeed
by calling them Osama Ji and Hafiz Ji, Singh said. He said that such people do
not have clear policy and intention on terrorism. All political parties should
stand united to tackle terrorism. Our army jawans have achieved victory by
eliminating terrorists on foreign land thrice in the past five years, Singh
said. On the issue of Kashmiris, Singh said the people of Jammu and Kashmir are
and will always be with the country and Kashmiri students studying anywhere in
the country will be protected.
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PAKISTAN REGISTERS FIR AGAINST IAF PILOTS FOR BOMBING TREES:
REPORT
Pakistan on Friday registered
a First Information Report against unidentified pilots of the Indian Air Force
(IAF) for bombing and destroying 19 trees in the Balakot area, according to a
media report. The FIR was filed by the forestry department on Friday against
pilots of the IAF for bombing and destroying trees in the Balakot area. The
FIR, registered against unidentified IAF pilots, also details the damage
suffered by 19 trees after the Indian fighter jets hastily dropped their
payload, it says. Pakistan also plans to lodge a complaint against India at the
United Nations, accusing New Delhi of eco-terrorism.
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TAKE 'SUSTAINED AND IRREVERSIBLE' ACTIONS AGAINST TERRORISTS:
US TELLS PAKISTAN
Stepping up pressure on
Pakistan, the US has asked Islamabad to take sustained and irreversible actions
against terrorist groups operating from its territory to prevent future attacks
and promote regional stability. The State Department statement came as
Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and India's air
strikes against Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist camp in Balakot in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province on February 26, started taking actions against some of the
terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days. In Islamabad, the
Interior Ministry on Thursday announced that a total of 121 members of the
proscribed groups have so far been taken into preventive detention across
Pakistan. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino told reporters
at his biweekly news conference on Thursday, I would say that we, the United
States notes these steps and we continue to urge Pakistan to take sustained,
irreversible actions against terrorist groups that will prevent future attacks
and promote regional stability. Our views on Masood Azhar and Jaish-e-Mohammed
are well-known. Jaish-e-Mohammed is a United Nations-designated terrorist group
that has been responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and is a threat to
regional stability. Masood Azhar is the founder and leader of JEM, Palladino
said. But we will continue to work with the sanctions committee to ensure that
the list is updated and that it is accurate, Palladino said.
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PAKISTAN NEVER SERIOUSLY CRACKED DOWN ON TERRORIST GROUPS THAT
ATTACK INDIA: NEW YORK TIMES
Pakistan has never
seriously cracked down on militant groups that attack India, a leading US daily
has said, warning that the threat of nuclear war between the two nations
remains as a long-term solution to the conflict is unlikely without
international pressure. The New York Times in an Op-ed titled 'This Is Where a
Nuclear Exchange Is Most Likely. (It's Not North Korea.)' said the current focus
on North Korea's growing arsenal obscures the fact that the most likely trigger
for a nuclear exchange could be the conflict between India and Pakistan. The
paper said the relative calm after last week's confrontation between the two
nations is not a solution. As long as India and Pakistan refuse to deal with
their core dispute — the future of Kashmir — they face unpredictable, possibly
terrifying, consequences, it said. The next confrontation might not end so
calmly, the paper said. Without international pressure, a long-term solution is
unlikely, and the threat of nuclear war remains.
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PAKISTAN CONTINUES BLOCKING MEDIA ACCESS TO IAF'S AIR STRIKE
SITE
Pakistani security
officials on Thursday prevented a Reuters team from climbing a hill in
northeastern Pakistan to the site of a madrasa and a group of surrounding
buildings that was targeted by Indian warplanes last week. It is the third time
in the past nine days that Reuters reporters have visited the area – and each
time the path up to what villagers say was a religious school run at one time
by militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and what the Indian government says
was a terrorist training camp - was blocked. The Pakistani security officials
guarding the way to the site cited security concerns for denying access. The
building that reporters could see was surrounded by undamaged pine trees, and
did not show any signs of damage or activity but given the view, the assessment
is very limited.
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PETITION LAUNCHED ON WHITE HOUSE WEBSITE TO SAVE H-1B SPOUSE
WORK PERMITS
As the proposal to rescind
the H-4 spousal work authorisation regulation inches closer to reality, the
immigrant community, especially of Indian origin, is leaving no stone unturned
to help ensure continuity of the Obama-era programme. One of the many efforts
is a petition launched on the White House website requesting the US government not
to revoke the H-4 EAD (employment authorisation document) programme. By 5 pm on
March 7, the petition had received 43,332 signatures. Under the norms, if one
lakh signatures are received within one month of the launch of a petition, the
White House gives an official response within the next 60 days.
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CHINA TO HOST 2ND BRI MEET NEXT MONTH: WANG YI
China will host a second
global meeting on its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) next month,
which Foreign Minister Wang Yi said would be much bigger that the first. The
number of heads of state and government expected to attend the next month's
meeting will be much more than that of the first Belt and Road Forum (BRF),
Wang told. It will be a much bigger event with thousands of delegates from over
100 countries expected to attend, he said. The BRI includes USD 60-billion
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which India opposes as it traverses through
the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The US, India and several other countries have
raised concerns over the BRI as China doled out huge loans to smaller countries
for infrastructure projects without taking into consideration their ability to
pay back the money. India boycotted the first BRF meet held in 2017, which was
attended by 29 heads of state and government, the UN Secretary General and
heads of World Bank and IMF and a host of officials from different parts of the
world.
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EX-TRUMP CAMPAIGN BOSS MANAFORT SENTENCED TO 47 MONTHS
Former Trump campaign
chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced on Thursday to nearly four years in prison
for tax and bank fraud related to his work advising Ukrainian politicians, much
less than what was called for under sentencing guidelines. Manafort, sitting in
a wheelchair as he deals with complications from gout, had no visible reaction
as he heard the 47-month sentence. While that was the longest sentence to date
to come from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, it could have been much
worse for Manafort. Sentencing guidelines called for a 20-year-term,
effectively a lifetime sentence for the 69-year-old. Manafort has been jailed
since June, so he will receive credit for the nine months he has already
served. He still faces the possibility of additional time from his sentencing
in a separate case in the District of Columbia, where he pleaded guilty to charges
related to illegal lobbying. Before Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentence,
Manafort told him that saying I feel humiliated and ashamed would be a gross
understatement. But he offered no explicit apology, something Judge Ellis noted
before issuing his sentence. Manafort steered Donald Trump’s election efforts
during crucial months of the 2016 campaign as Russia sought to meddle in the
election through hacking of Democratic email accounts. He was among the first
of Mr. Trump associates charged in the Mueller investigation and has been a
high-profile defendant. But the charges against Manafort were unrelated to his
work on the campaign or the focus of Mr. Mueller’s investigation- whether the
Trump campaign coordinated with Russians. A jury last year convicted Manafort
on eight counts, concluding that he hid from the IRS millions of dollars he
earned from his work in Ukraine. Manafort’s lawyers argued that their client
had engaged in what amounted to a routine tax evasion case, and cited numerous
past sentences in which defendants had hidden millions from the IRS and served
less than a year in prison. Outside court, Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing,
said his client accepted responsibility for his conduct and there was
absolutely no evidence that Mr. Manafort was involved in any collusion with the
government of Russia.
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U.S. ENVOY FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SLAMS CHINA DURING HONG KONG
VISIT
The U.S. ambassador for
religious freedom, Sam Brownback, on Friday called on Beijing to end religious
persecution in China, while requesting a visit to the country's mass internment
camps in the western region of Xinjiang. Brownback said Beijing was waging a
war with faith and that it needed to respect the fundamental and sacred right
of people to worship. It is a war they will not win, he told an audience at the
Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club. The Chinese Communist Party must hear
the cries of its own people for religious freedom and act to correct its wrongs.
Brownback spoke of rights violations including torture, political
indoctrination and forced labour. The camps reportedly hold more than a million
ethnic Uighurs and people from other Muslim minorities, The Trump
administration is deeply concerned and considers this oppression a deliberate
attempt by Beijing to redefine and control members of these Muslim minority
groups' identity, culture and faith. We don't discuss internal matters about
what's being discussed about possible actions in any place around the world, the
same for Xinjiang.
#For Source of Information copy and paste the heading in google.
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
Thanks & Regards,
CS Meetesh Shiroya
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