By IANS,
Gandhinagar : The Gujarat government Tuesday accused the central government of doing injustice with the state and attempting to derail the accelerated process of industrial investment by issuing Income Tax notice to it.
Industries Minister Saurabh Patel questioned in the assembly the motive of the Income Tax department here in issuing a show cause notice to the Gujarat government seeking details of all memorandum of understandings (MoUs) worth over Rs.1,000 crore it signed with different companies.
The letter, dated Feb 17, signed by Deputy Director (Investigations) Anurag Sharma, said the inquiry was being conducted under section 131 (1A) of the Income Tax Act.
The letter said that an inquiry in connection with the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2011 was pending and “the details of the MoUs signed by various corporate entities with the government of Gujarat need to be examined”.
The industries minister said: “We have received a letter from the Income Tax department seeking information about all the memoranda of understanding (MoUs) signed during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2011.”
“I want to ask the central government, if it has sent such letters pertaining to investment proposals in all the states, or is Gujarat being singled out,” he said.
Later, asked for the state government’s response to the notice, he said, “We will get into action now. This is injustice to the state and the people of Gujarat.”
About 8,000 MoUs, for investment promises totalling Rs.20.83 lakh crore were signed by the state government at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2011 held Jan 12-13.
Retaliating to the minister’s charges, Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat assembly Shaktisinh Gohil of the Congress said that on the one hand the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was talking about crusade against black money in the country while on the other it was objecting to Income Tax department’s action against ill-gotten money.
“Such action to unearth black money is not only in Gujarat but in the entire country,” he added.