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contradictory reports on the cause of amount charged while applying the senior bureaucrats and the President,
deaths. Chief fire officer P S rate of service tax, which will be cal- every one twisted and turned, except
Rahangdale said most of the casualties culated on the balance 40 per cent, it the Opposition, which alleged that the
occurred due to suffocation. said. Modi government had used the Day for
political mileage without doing any-
Monsoon covers entire Following the increase in service tax to thing substantial to promote yoga.
country 14 per cent from June, the effective
rate will be 5.6 per cent of the total The largest of spectacles unfolded
The weather office reported that the amount charged. Earlier, when the early morning on the imposing
monsoon has covered the entire coun- service tax was 12.36 per cent (includ- Rajpath, where Modi, whose call led to
try more than two weeks ahead of its ing education cess), the effective rate declaration of June 21 as International
schedule in a year that is forecast to was 4.94 per cent. Service tax is lev- Day of Yoga by the UN, sprang a sur-
see below - average rains. The revival ied on all services, except a small nega- prise as he performed various asanas
of the monsoon rains in the grain bowl tive list. and pranayams with over 35,000
- the northwest and central regions - people.
should help speed up sowing of the Modi handpicked official
main summer crops, such as rice, corn, logo The Rajpath event made it to the
soybeans and cotton. Guinness Book of World Records for the
The official logo, which adorned all the largest yoga demonstration at a single
Higher rainfall since the start of the promotional and publicity material for venue with 35,985 people participat-
June - September season has eased International Yoga Day, was hand- ing. It also set a new record for the
concerns about the first drought in six picked by Prime Minister Narendra largest number of people of various
years. Last year, monsoon rains cov- Modi around four months ago. The nationalities - 84 - performing yoga at
ered the country two days behind logo, created by an 18-member team one place.
schedule, hitting crop output. of New Delhi-based Panchtatva Adver-
tising, represents different elements of An avid yoga practitioner, 64-year-old
Non-AC restaurants out of nature such as water, earth and envi- Modi, who was not scheduled to per-
service tax net ronment. form the asanas, climbed down from
the podium after his address to the
The finance ministry has recently an- Over 35,000 join Modi to gathering and joined others along the
nounced that non a/c restaurants create yoga record boulevard. US Ambassador to India
would not charge service tax from cus- Richard Verma was among scores of
tomers, while those with ACs would In the Modi Government, 'informal in- diplomats who attended the mega
charge tax on 40 per cent of the bill struction' typically means 'get it done'. event.
amount. And celebrating the inaugural Interna-
tional Yoga Day was one such proposal Later, addressing a two-day interna-
"Restaurants, eating joints or messes, for everyone - not just in the public tional conference on yoga for holistic
which do not have the facility of air- sector, but also private. health, Modi said, "If we make yoga a
conditioning or central-heating in any commodity, then maximum damage to
part of the establishment are exempt Almost all wings of the government it will be done by us. Yoga is not a com-
from service tax. In other words, only joined Prime Minister Narendra Modi modity, yoga is not a brand which has
air-conditioned or air-heated restau- at a yoga session and similar such to be sold."
rants are required to pay service tax," events took place across the country -
the ministry said in a clarification. from the icy heights of Siachen Glacier Under attack from Congress for "usurp-
to the humid beaches of Kanyakumari ing" the traditional discipline, Modi said
In case of air-conditioned or air-heated - led by senior ministers. yoga is "not the brainchild of a govern-
restaurants, 60 per cent of the value ment" or the UN but a gift from many
is to be deducted from the total From students and defence officials to generations and many traditions from
26 PR COMMUNICATION AGE August 2015
