Engineer kills wife for refusing to stay with him in Mulund home, is on the run Budget could make air travel, eating out dearer

A 35-year-old man is on the run after allegedly killing his 30-year-old wife at Mulund (West) because she refused to stay with him. The police, the accused, Jayesh Raghunath Mhadlekar and his wife, Shreya, had been living separately before the incident. He suspected his wife was having an affair, the police said. Shreya was allegedly hit on the head with a blunt object and was found by her mother, Madhuri, 52, in a groundplus-one structure at PK Road in Mulund. Shreya’s parents had gifted the home to the couple.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley could raise the service tax rate in the Budget to be presented on February 1, a move that will increase the cost of eating out, going to the movies or flying.

Two senior government sources told Hindustan Times on Friday that the existing rate of 15%, which includes two cesses, could be raised by another 0.5% to 1%.

“The government might want to increase the service tax so that the shift to GST is not abrupt,” one of them said, referring to a proposed a Goods and Services Tax that has missed several deadlines because of political wrangling. Jaitley has said he wants to roll it out by July 1.

Service tax is a charge service providers collect from customers and then pass on to the Central government.

The government might allow people to withdraw their weekly limit of Rs 24,000 in a single ATM transaction, multiple sources told HT, as the cash crunch showed signs of easing nearly three months after demonetisation.

The single-transaction rule could be implemented within a fortnight. However, the weekly limit of Rs 24,000 is likely to be kept unchanged till February-end, highly-placed sources said.

The government recalled 500 and 1000-rupee banknotes on November 8 in a shock announcement that sucked out 86% of the currency in circulation, sparking a severe cash crunch and panic among billions of Indians.

At present, customers can withdraw Rs 24,000 in a week though the single-day ATM limit is set at Rs 10,000. Banks, however, allow the entire amount to be withdrawn in a single transaction.

Sources said that with the situation easing, customers are now withdrawing around Rs 3,500 in a single transaction, which has left the ATMs with extra cash. Sources said the RBI, which is monitoring the pattern on cash withdrawal and supply, will take a decision soon.

“The situation has become almost normal, the average footfall at an ATM has come down and the demand for cash is also normalising,”RiturajSinha,president,Cash Logistics Association, told HT.

Cash injection into ATMs has also further increased in the last five days, he said. On an average, about Rs 12,000 crore is being provided for filling up the country’s 2.2 lakh ATMs compared to about Rs 13,000 crore before November 8.