A newspaper clipping is being widely shared on social media claiming that the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh is introducing 6% GST on Sunday Church Mass offertory money.
The image is shared on Facebook with a caption: “This is how sick this govt is…why not on temple offerings.”
Here’s the link to the above post.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile fact-checked the above claim, and found it to be FALSE.
Running a Reverse Image Search with relevant keywords, we found a Facebook post, dated June 8, 2018, that carried the same viral image. In this image, one can clearly see the masthead of The Times of India.
On carefully observing the image, we noticed several differences between the viral headline and other stories’ headlines. The viral headline ended with a full stop, unlike other headlines and the font style is also different.
With a keyword search — “Friends, kin behind 97% kidnaps” — we found the same news report published by The Times of India on January 11, 2010.
Going through the TOI online archives, dated January 10&11, 2010, we found many items shown in the popular image printed in its January 2010 issues. But the GST has not been implemented in India till 2017.
A Facebook post — dated June 8, 2018 — has also carried the same viral image, stating: “This particular headline which reads that BJP Govt in UP has introduced 6% GST on the Sunday Church Offertory money has been in circulation for quite some time. Actually, this is a morphed photo. As much as I dislike BJP, I cannot support something that is incorrect. Please stop circulating it.”
Below is a comparison between the viral image and the original image posted by a Facebook user in 2018.
Thus, it is evident from the above information that the viral newspaper clipping is edited.
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