BEIJING: China rolled out curbs Wednesday on the import of fruit and fish from Taiwan while halting shipments of sand to the island.

The trip by Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency and the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, has ignited a diplomatic firestorm. She landed late Tuesday in the wake of increasingly stark warnings from China, which considers the island a part of its territory to one day be reclaimed, by force if necessary.

China’s Customs Administration said Wednesday it would suspend some citrus fruit imports from Taiwan over alleged “repeated” detection of excessive pesticide residue, and the import of fish owing to positive coronavirus tests on packages.

In a separate notice, the Commerce Ministry added it would also “suspend the export of natural sand to Taiwan” from Wednesday, without providing details.

Natural sand is generally used for producing concrete and asphalt, and most of Taiwan’s imported sand and gravel comes from China.

The moves are part of a “common pattern for Beijing”, said Even Pay, an agriculture analyst at consultancy Trivium China. More disruptions of the agricultural and food trade can be expected in the coming days, she added.

“When diplomatic or trade tensions are running high, Chinese regulators typically take an extremely strict approach to compliance… looking for any issues that can be used to justify a trade ban,” she told AFP.

China is Taiwan’s biggest trading partner and export market, with bilateral trade growing 26 percent on year to $328 billion in 2021, official data shows. It is not the first time Beijing has taken aim at the island’s exports.

China banned pineapple imports in March 2021, citing the discovery of pests, in a move that was widely seen as politically driven. Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, as she views the island as a de facto sovereign nation and not part of “one China”.

On top of the latest bans, Taipei’s Council of Agriculture said Tuesday that China had cited regulatory breaches in suspending the import of other Taiwanese goods, including fishery products, tea and honey.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities also announced planned live-fire military drills encircling Taiwan, in a move Taipei’s defence ministry said threatened key ports and urban areas.

At some points, the zone of Chinese operations will come within 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) of Taiwan’s shoreline, according to coordinates shared by the People’s Liberation Army. Taiwan’s 23 million people have long lived with the possibility of an invasion, but that threat has intensified under President Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in a generation.

A record 72.42 lakh income tax returns were filed on the last day of such filing on July 31, taking the cumulative returns to 5.83 crore, near to the same levels of last year.

While initially income tax return (ITR) filing was slow, the pace picked up as the deadline neared.

“The surge of filing ITRs peaked on July 31, 2022 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 72.42 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day,” an official statement said.

The total ITRs filed till July 31, 2022 for assessment year 22-23 is about 5.83 crore, it said.

Last fiscal (2020-21), about 5.89 crore ITRs (Income Tax Returns) were filed by the extended due date of December 31, 2021.

Typically, return filers wait till the last day to file returns.

Over the last two financial years, the government had extended the deadline for filing ITRs to ease compliance for taxpayers battling Covid pandemic.

But this year the deadline was not extended by even by a day.

Through ITR, a person is supposed to submit to the Income Tax Department information about the income and the taxes due and paid on it during the year.

The Income Tax Department has prescribed 7 types of ITR forms, whose applicability will depend on the nature and amount of income and the type of taxpayer.

The tax department’s new income tax filing portal is now very robust to take the increased loads.

“The e-filing portal also set other benchmarks on July 31, 2022 including – highest per second rate of ITR filing: 570 (at 4:29:30 pm), highest per minute rate of ITR filing: 9573 (at 7:44 pm), and the highest per hour rate of ITR filing: 5,17,030, between 5 PM to 6 PM,” the statement said.

The initial pace of e-filing was relatively much slower with the first 1 crore ITRs for AY 22-23 being filed only by July 7.

The pace picked up marginally, with about 2.48 crore ITRs being filed by July 22.

“With the Government announcing that there would be no extension of the due date, there was a surge in filing of ITRs and by July 25, 2022, 3 crore ITRs had been filed. By the end of the day on 31st July,2022, 72.42 lakh ITRs had been filed, shattering all previous records (maximum being 49 lakh ITRs in 2019). In the month of July, 2022 alone, over 5.13 crore ITRs have been filed,” it said.

Out of 5.83 crore ITRs filed for AY 2022-23, 50 per cent of these are ITR-1 (2.93 crore), 11.5 per cent are ITR-2 (67 lakh), 10.9 per cent are ITR-3 (63.35 lakh) and 26 per cent are ITR-4 (1.54 crore).

“The number of ITRs filed during working hours (9 AM-6 PM) since 7th July, 2022 to 31st July, 2022 is around 3.31 crore, which is 58.77% of the total ITRs filed,” it said.

“Over 47% of these ITRs have been filed using the online ITR form on the portal and the balance have been uploaded using the ITR created from the offline software utilities.” 

Large number of taxpayers did their due diligence by comparing data of their income by viewing their Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS). A high rate of usage of AIS/TIS data was reflected by the fact that more than 5.03 crore taxpayers viewed/downloaded their AIS.

This year a large portion of the data for ITR-1 was already prefilled with salary, interest and dividend income making compliance easier for taxpayers.

For other ITRs 2, 3, 4, apart from this data, property details for rental income, brought forward losses, MAT credit was also pre-filled to further ease compliance for taxpayers.

NEW DELHI: Highlighting India’s robust economic health despite the COVID pandemic and geo-political situation, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said there is no question of India getting into stagflation or recession like other major economies of the world.

In her reply to the debate on price rise at the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said, “We have never seen a pandemic of this kind. All of us were trying to make sure that people in our constituencies are given extra help. I recognise that everybody – MPs and state governments have played their role. Otherwise, India would not be where it is compared to the rest of the world.”

“So, I fully credit the people of India for this. Even against adversity, we are able to stand up and be recognised as the fastest growing economy,” she said.

The Finance Minister emphasized that due to the measures taken by the government, India is in a much better position than most countries.

“Repeatedly in the assessment of global agencies, India remains the fastest growing economy in the assessment of global agencies. This House irrespective of the party should feel proud of the country and its people. State governments have helped,” she stated in the Lok Sabha.

Referring to a survey, Sitharaman said there is zero possibility of India getting into recession.

Sitharaman said the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the US fell 0.9 per cent in the second quarter following a 1.6 per cent decline in the first quarter. “They start it calling an unofficial recession. There is no question of India getting into recession or stagflation,” said the Minister.

“Pandemic, second wave, Omicron, Russia-Ukraine (war), even today largest supply components in China are under lockdown. In spite of that, we have held inflation well within 7 per cent or below. That has to be recognised,” she told Lok Sabha.

She further said, “4,000 banks in China are reported to be going bankrupt. In India, the gross NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) of scheduled commercial banks is at a 5-years low of 5.9 per cent in 2022. So our NPAs are improving. The government debt to GDP Ratio of many countries is in triple digits including Japan, Greece, Bhutan, Singapore, the US, Portugal, Spain, France, Sri Lanka and Canada. But the central government very consciously controlled its debt and it is at 56.29 per cent of the GDP at the end of 2021-22 compared to the 59.9 per cent revised estimate that year.”

According to IMF data, Sitharaman said the general debt to GDP ratio is 86.9 per cent including the Centre and the state.

In July 2022, the Minister said the country has garnered the second highest level ever since the introduction of the GST which is 1.49 lakh crore. “In April 2022, it was 1.67 lakh crore which was the highest we reached. This is the fifth consecutive month that collections have been above Rs 1.4 Lakh crores,” she said.

Quoting former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan, she said, “On Saturday, Raghuram Rajan said that ‘RBI has done a good job in increasing foreign exchange reserve in India, insulating India from problems being faced by neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“Differentiating India from its vulnerable neighbours, Raghuram Rajan further added that ‘New Delhi is less indebted’, calling it a good sign, the Minister said.

Amid Sitharaman’s reply to the debate on price rise, Congress members walk out from Lok Sabha.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has said that Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, Netta D’Souza along with others conspired to “launch a tirade of false scathing and belligerent personal attacks” on BJP leader Smriti Irani and her daughter, who are neither owners of the restaurant in Goa nor have they ever applied for the licence for food and beverages at the eatery, as alleged.

The high court said the statement made by three Congress leaders are in the “nature of slander and seem to be bogus with malicious intent,” to intentionally subject Irani to a “great public ridicule” and “to injure the moral character and public image” of the BJP leader and her daughter.

The remarks were made by the high court while perusing the documents placed before it in a civil defamation suit filed by Irani, the Minister for Women and Child Development, against the three Congress leaders.

The high court’s order, in which it had on July 29 issued summonses to three Congress leaders on the civil defamation suit, was uploaded on the court’s website On Monday.

The high court has also asked them to take down tweets and other social media posts on allegations levelled against the union minister and her daughter.

“I have perused the various documents on record, particularly, the show cause notice dated July 21, 2022, issued by the Government of Goa, office of Commissioner of Excise, which has been addressed to one Anthony Dgama, and not to the plaintiff (Irani) or her family members.”

Considering the documents on record it is clearly seen that there was no license that was ever issued in favour of the plaintiff or her daughter. The plaintiff or her daughter are not the owners of the restaurant. It has also been established by the plaintiff prima facie that the plaintiff or her daughter never applied for license.

“Neither the restaurant nor the land on which the restaurant exists is owned by the plaintiff or her daughter even the show cause notice issued by the Government of Goa is not in the name of the plaintiff or her daughter. All these facts have also been affirmed in the affidavit by the plaintiff,” Justice Mini Pushkarna said in her 14-page order.

Irani has filed a defamation suit against the Congress leaders for allegedly making baseless and false accusations against her and her 18-year-old daughter.

The high court said since the plaintiff commands an esteemed position as a minister in the Government of India and considering the nature of her public office, there is immense public glare and scrutiny of any information about her in the public domain.

“Defendant nos. 1 to 3 (Congress leaders) have conspired with each other and other individuals and organisations to launch a tirade of false, scathing, and belligerent personal attacks on the plaintiff and her daughter with a common motive to malign, defame and injure the reputation, moral character and public image of the plaintiff and her daughter,” it said.

The high court said it was of the considered view that the statements made by the Congress leaders are in the “nature of slander and seem to be bogus with malicious intent, only to garner the highest amount of viewership thereby intentionally subjecting the plaintiff to a great public ridicule”.

It added that “Plaintiff (Irani) has made out a prima facie case and balance of convenience lies in favour of the plaintiff and against the defendants”.

The high court has also passed an interim injunction directing the Congress leaders to remove from social media the allegations made against Irani and her daughter.

The court said in case the defendants fail to comply with its directions to remove tweets, retweets, posts, videos, and photos from social media concerning the allegations made against Irani, and her daughter within 24 hours, social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube shall take down the material.

Irani’s action came after the Congress leaders alleged that her daughter Zoish Irani ran a bar illegally in Goa and also targeted the minister over this, demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi sack her from his Cabinet.

“After seeing the documents placed on record and the excerpts of the press conference, I am of the prima facie view that slanderous and libelous allegations have been made against the plaintiff without verifying actual facts. Great injury has been caused to the reputation of the plaintiff and her family in view of the various tweets and re-tweets which have been followed the press conference carried out by the defendants,” the judge said.

The high court said there is an imperative need to protect the reputation of an individual, least to say, that of the plaintiff who is a respected member of the society and esteemed member of the Union Ministry.

The judge further said, “I deem it expedient to pass an ad-interim injunction directing defendants 1-3 (Congress leaders) to delete and remove the allegations, video of impugned press conference dated July 23, 2022, and the contents linked to the same “, published against the plaintiff from all the social media platforms, namely, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.”

The matter has now been listed for further hearing before the court and registrar on November 15 and August 18, respectively.

NEW DELHI: A 35-year-old Nigerian man living in the national capital, with no recent international travel history, tests positive for monkeypox, said official sources on Monday.

This is the sixth monkeypox case in India and the second case in Delhi.

The patient is admitted to Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Hospital which comes under the government of Delhi.

India has reported six monkeypox cases so far including four from Kerala and two from Delhi.

The government of Kerala declared on Monday the first death due to monkeypox. A 22-year-old man who had tested positive for monkeypox in UAE arrived in India on July 22 and was admitted to a hospital on July 27 after again testing positive for monkeypox.

“The situation is well under control, there’s no panic here as of now. The person had direct contact with only 10 people including family members and a few friends. 20 people quarantined so far,” said Renjini, Member, Education and Health standing committee.

The Centre has formed a task force in the wake of monkeypox cases in India to monitor and provide guidance to the government on the expansion of diagnostic facilities and to explore vaccination for the infection in the country.

The decision was taken during a meeting which was attended by Cabinet secretary, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, Additional Secretary (PMO) and other senior officials.

“The team will be headed by Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog and members including Secretary, Union Health Ministry, Pharma and Biotech,” sources told ANI.

Meanwhile, a contact list and route map of the deceased youth has been prepared. Contact persons are advised to undergo isolation.

The central government is on an alert even as the count of infections in some other countries has risen.

NITI Aayog’s member (Health) Dr V K Paul said that there is absolutely no need for any panic as the government has taken significant measures to keep the disease in check.

In an interview with ANI, Dr Paul sought to assert that there was no need for any undue panic but added that it was still important that the country and the society stay vigilant.

“There is no need to panic, as of now, but one must report in time if they spot any symptoms, he said.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), more than 18,000 cases have been reported from 78 countries.

“The monkeypox outbreak can be stopped if countries, communities and individuals inform themselves, take the risks seriously, and take the steps needed to stop transmission and protect vulnerable groups,” said Dr Tedros, Director General, WHO on Thursday.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the same family of viruses that causes smallpox. The disease is endemic in regions like West and Central Africa but lately, cases have been reported from non-endemic countries too, according to the WHO.