In the aftermath of the recently concluded assembly election in which the BJP suffered a setback, the party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya tweeted on Sunday that party, despite having a 7% vote share in Telangana managed to win just one seat, whereas the Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen with a vote share of merely 2.7% bagged seven seats in the election.
While the numbers cited by Malviya are correct, the claim is misleading. While the AIMIM had a vote share of 2.7%, the party had contested merely eight seats, of which it won seven. On the other hand, the BJP had contested 118 out of 119 seats in the state assembly. The AIMIM thus has a far superior strike rate of 87.5% (seven out of eight) in comparison to the BJP’s dismal strike rate of 0.85% (one out of 118). The complete details are available on the website of the Election Commission.
GST rate reduction
Earlier in the day, Malvia put of a tweet saying: “Today is Sunday. A film and meal with the family has never been this affordable! – Tax on restaurant bill reduced to 5% instead of steep 30% earlier – Movie ticket taxed at 12% (up to Rs 100 or 18% for over 100), down from 28% earlier Middle class has never had it this good...”
It was a reference to the decision by the GST Council earlier in the week to reduce tax rates on over 20 goods and services. But Malviya in his exuberance conveniently omitted the fact that the rates will be effective from January 1, 2019. Malviya was contradicted by none other than his party, the BJP, which tweeted an infographic that said that the new rates will be applicable from January 1.
Moreover, this was confirmed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley who spoke to reporters after the meeting of the GST council, according to a report by Business Today.
This article first appeared on Alt News.
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