By TCN News,
New Delhi: The Central government on Monday has filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court naming three persons who are black money account holders in an attempt to evade tax in India. Interestingly one out of these has 9 times donated to Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and thrice to Indian National Congress (INC) between financial years 2004-05 to 2011-12.
These are Pradip Burman, director of the Burman group and one of promoters of Dabur group, Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhya, a Rajkot-based bullion trader and Radha S Timblo, a Goa-based miner and owner of Timblo Pvt Ltd.
The government has promised Supreme Court to disclose all names in the cases where tax evasion is established also stating that every foreign account held by an Indian may not be illegal and that names cannot be disclosed unless there is prima facie evidence of wrongdoing.
Coming under pressure from own party members and opposition parties for not disclosing names, on Monday Centre told the SC that it had no intention to withhold names of persons who have stashed black money abroad and that information received from foreign countries will be disclosed in all cases.
Centre apprised SC that Switzerland has agreed to provide information on black money in cases where investigation has been done by IT department.
It is been reported that attorney general Mukul Rohatgi has submitted a supplementary affidavit in the SC on Monday featuring plans to submit the full list of names in a sealed envelope.
Complicity of Political parties in covering black money holder corporate/trusts:
An analysis carried out by adrindia.org for the donations made by individuals and corporates to the National Parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12 shows that Timblo Pvt Ltd, whose Managing Director is b>Radha Timblo, had donated nine times to BJP amounting to a total of Rs 1.18 crores and thrice to INC, amounting to a total of Rs 65 lakhs in seven years.
Also, the BJP’s donations report for the FY 2011-12 lists the name of Chamanbhai Lodhiya from Rajkot who had donated a total of Rs 51 thousand to the party. Details of all donations made by Timblo Pvt Ltd and its representatives are listed below:
Donations to Bharatiya Janata Party:
Donations to Indian National Congress:
At present there are a total of 13 Electoral Trusts, only seven of which have been approved by the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes (CBDT) because they were formed after the CBDT rules governing Electoral Trusts were notified on the 31st January, 2013. The remaining six Electoral Trusts were already in existence before the CBDT rules for such Trusts were notified.
These Trusts include General Electoral Trust, Electoral Trust, Harmony Electoral Trust, Corporate Electoral Trust, Bharti Electoral Trust and Satya Electoral Trust.
The seven Electoral Trusts formed after the CBDT rules came into effect are required to submit details of their donations to the ECI. The remaining six formed before the CBDT rules came into existence are not required to do so under the current dispensation. These six Electoral Trusts have donated more than Rs 105 crores to national parties between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Details of these donations are not known.
Since details of donors who made contributions to these six Electoral Trusts which were in existence before the CBDT rules are not known, it cannot be verified whether the funding of political parties through Electoral Trusts was not only a means of getting tax exemption but also a means to convert black money stashed in tax havens to white money in India.
Hence details of donors of Rs 105 crores donated to political parties by the six Electoral Trusts which were formed before the CBDT rules came into existence, should also be disclosed. Once these details are made public then more embarrassing elements will come to the floor against the ruling BJP government if at all some donations are found to have received by the party.