YEH MERA INDIA
Political parties & I.T. returns,not made for each other
New Delhi: A country-wide probe conducted by the Income Tax department has found that close to 300 registered political parties have never filed their tax returns and the Election Commission has now asked the department to issue notices to them.
The probe, conducted after the EC asked the Central Board of Direct-Taxes (CBDT) to ascertain the financial status of these small parties for alleged violation of tax laws and money laundering, has been submitted to the election panel.
A number of parties also do not possess Permanent Account Number (PAN), said the bulky report, prepared by the assessment wing of the CBDT. The EC had sent a list of suspect political parties to CBDT for probe early this year. It was alleged that people are floating such political parties in large numbers to evade taxes as donations to them are exempt from payment of Income Tax.
The EC has asked the department to intensify the probe and serve show-cause notices to these small parties under relevant sections of I-T Act and ascertain the source and end use of the funds they received.
The report has tracked the I-T returns of these small parties in 13 states including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and those from the North East."The status of such small parties in the remaining states will also be sent to the EC soon,” a senior officer involved in the exercise said.
While national and other major political parties file their I-T returns regularly small and lesser-known parties are under the scanner, the officer said. The I-T department, in its recent report, also probed the donors to these parties who provided more than Rs 20,000
The number of political parties registered with the Commission is almost touching the 1,200 mark. A recent law that exempted donations to political parties from income tax, for both the payers and the payee, has caused a spurt in the formation of new political parties,” Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi had said earlier this year. Quraishi had made a strong pitch for providing tax benefits on donations to only those political parties which prove their strength at the hustings as exemptions on such funds have led to mushrooming of new parties.
Cost of sleaze
New Delhi: The menace of corruption in the country is pegged at Rs 1555 thousand crore in the last decade and majority of it has been laundered out of India using illicit gateways, a recent study has claimed.
According to a first of its kind report on ‘Ascertaining size of corruption in India with respect to money laundering’, an individual spent over Rs 2,000 as a cost of corruption in 2009, which is 260 percent higher than the amount borne by a citizen ten years back, reports PTI.
“In the past decade, money laundered out of India was at least Rs 1886 thousand crores or USD 419 billion. This quantification of the laundering is worked out on the most pessimistic manner and by considering the global parameters,” it said. “If the Gross Domestic Product-based money laundering model is translated to quantify the corruption, then the size of corruption in the last decade is Rs. 1,555 thousand crore or USD 345 billion in India,” the report said. The study was conducted by a Pune-based company Indiaforensic, which has pioneered in fraud examination, security, risk management and forensic accounting research and has been for long helping the country’s investigating agencies like CBI in several high profile cases. It is based on the analysis of scarce data available for measuring money laundering described through three models-property recovery, crime based and GDP based.
“The three models gave details of quantum of money laundering. They are based on the statistics by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),” said Mayur Joshi, an anti-fraud and money laundering expert and founder member of the firm which had assisted CBI in the multi-crore Satyam scam.
Where there is will there’s a way
Gandhinagar: The initiative of a rural youth of Gujarat in using the Right to Information Act (RTI) has ensured that Gujarat becomes the first state in the country where disclosure of all stocks is compulsory in all fair price shops in the state.
The 18-year-old second year B com student Bhadresh Wamja created history of sorts when he led a virtual crusade against irregularities being indulged in by Fair Price Shops in his area and was delighted when his tenacity bore results. “It has given me a great sense of satisfaction”, he said.
The teenager, who heads a movement called Youth Against Corruption in his area, came to know through newspapers that APL cardholders were entitled to get rations from fair price shops under the Public Distribution (PDS). However, when he went to the fair price shop in his village with his APL card, he was flatly turned down saying no such provision exists and he has to buy his grain and other requirements at prevailing market prices.
Perplexed, he approached the ‘mahiti adhikar’ helpline and was informed that his information was correct and that the Department of Food and Civil Supplies of the Gujarat government indeed sends foodgrain supplies for FPS through PDS for BPL, APL and Antyodaya card-holders regularly.
Buoyed with the information, Bhadresh filed an RTI application on February 11, 2011 seeking details of the stock dispatched and received by the shop. “This caused immense heartburn amongst the local village cartel, involving, among others the PDS shopkeeper and the gramsevak, which constituted the unholy siphoning off the PDS supplies meant for the people. Soon threats to me and my family followed”, said Bhadresh.
Not one to renege, he contacted the whistle-blower helpline of the Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel which helps and guides all such RTI activists. The helpline immediately wrote to the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the state government, RTI chief and the relevant police station. The cops moved and the fair price shopkeeper Paresh Jaiswal was arrested. But as is wont to happen, he was soon out on bail and the vicious circle began all over again. There were attempts at compromise but Bhadresh would not relent.
He again filed an RTI to the Civil Supplies Department on March 1, 2011. This time the wheels of Justice moved fast in the higher echelons of the government and on April 30, 2011, the state government passed on order under Section 4(1) (B), making it compulsory for all fair price shops in the state to disclose all the details about rations received and kept in the shop.
Pankti Jog of the Pahal which channelised the energy and the determination of the youth to seek justice for himself and for others in his village said that Bhadresh’s initiative will act like a beacon for many others to come forward and fight for what is their rightful due.”
He has struck a blow for most others of his ilk proving where there is a will there is a way.
New Delhi: A country-wide probe conducted by the Income Tax department has found that close to 300 registered political parties have never filed their tax returns and the Election Commission has now asked the department to issue notices to them.
The probe, conducted after the EC asked the Central Board of Direct-Taxes (CBDT) to ascertain the financial status of these small parties for alleged violation of tax laws and money laundering, has been submitted to the election panel.
A number of parties also do not possess Permanent Account Number (PAN), said the bulky report, prepared by the assessment wing of the CBDT. The EC had sent a list of suspect political parties to CBDT for probe early this year. It was alleged that people are floating such political parties in large numbers to evade taxes as donations to them are exempt from payment of Income Tax.
The EC has asked the department to intensify the probe and serve show-cause notices to these small parties under relevant sections of I-T Act and ascertain the source and end use of the funds they received.
The report has tracked the I-T returns of these small parties in 13 states including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and those from the North East."The status of such small parties in the remaining states will also be sent to the EC soon,” a senior officer involved in the exercise said.
While national and other major political parties file their I-T returns regularly small and lesser-known parties are under the scanner, the officer said. The I-T department, in its recent report, also probed the donors to these parties who provided more than Rs 20,000
The number of political parties registered with the Commission is almost touching the 1,200 mark. A recent law that exempted donations to political parties from income tax, for both the payers and the payee, has caused a spurt in the formation of new political parties,” Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi had said earlier this year. Quraishi had made a strong pitch for providing tax benefits on donations to only those political parties which prove their strength at the hustings as exemptions on such funds have led to mushrooming of new parties.
Cost of sleaze
New Delhi: The menace of corruption in the country is pegged at Rs 1555 thousand crore in the last decade and majority of it has been laundered out of India using illicit gateways, a recent study has claimed.
According to a first of its kind report on ‘Ascertaining size of corruption in India with respect to money laundering’, an individual spent over Rs 2,000 as a cost of corruption in 2009, which is 260 percent higher than the amount borne by a citizen ten years back, reports PTI.
“In the past decade, money laundered out of India was at least Rs 1886 thousand crores or USD 419 billion. This quantification of the laundering is worked out on the most pessimistic manner and by considering the global parameters,” it said. “If the Gross Domestic Product-based money laundering model is translated to quantify the corruption, then the size of corruption in the last decade is Rs. 1,555 thousand crore or USD 345 billion in India,” the report said. The study was conducted by a Pune-based company Indiaforensic, which has pioneered in fraud examination, security, risk management and forensic accounting research and has been for long helping the country’s investigating agencies like CBI in several high profile cases. It is based on the analysis of scarce data available for measuring money laundering described through three models-property recovery, crime based and GDP based.
“The three models gave details of quantum of money laundering. They are based on the statistics by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),” said Mayur Joshi, an anti-fraud and money laundering expert and founder member of the firm which had assisted CBI in the multi-crore Satyam scam.
Where there is will there’s a way
Gandhinagar: The initiative of a rural youth of Gujarat in using the Right to Information Act (RTI) has ensured that Gujarat becomes the first state in the country where disclosure of all stocks is compulsory in all fair price shops in the state.
The 18-year-old second year B com student Bhadresh Wamja created history of sorts when he led a virtual crusade against irregularities being indulged in by Fair Price Shops in his area and was delighted when his tenacity bore results. “It has given me a great sense of satisfaction”, he said.
The teenager, who heads a movement called Youth Against Corruption in his area, came to know through newspapers that APL cardholders were entitled to get rations from fair price shops under the Public Distribution (PDS). However, when he went to the fair price shop in his village with his APL card, he was flatly turned down saying no such provision exists and he has to buy his grain and other requirements at prevailing market prices.
Perplexed, he approached the ‘mahiti adhikar’ helpline and was informed that his information was correct and that the Department of Food and Civil Supplies of the Gujarat government indeed sends foodgrain supplies for FPS through PDS for BPL, APL and Antyodaya card-holders regularly.
Buoyed with the information, Bhadresh filed an RTI application on February 11, 2011 seeking details of the stock dispatched and received by the shop. “This caused immense heartburn amongst the local village cartel, involving, among others the PDS shopkeeper and the gramsevak, which constituted the unholy siphoning off the PDS supplies meant for the people. Soon threats to me and my family followed”, said Bhadresh.
Not one to renege, he contacted the whistle-blower helpline of the Mahiti Adhikar Gujarat Pahel which helps and guides all such RTI activists. The helpline immediately wrote to the Food and Civil Supplies Department of the state government, RTI chief and the relevant police station. The cops moved and the fair price shopkeeper Paresh Jaiswal was arrested. But as is wont to happen, he was soon out on bail and the vicious circle began all over again. There were attempts at compromise but Bhadresh would not relent.
He again filed an RTI to the Civil Supplies Department on March 1, 2011. This time the wheels of Justice moved fast in the higher echelons of the government and on April 30, 2011, the state government passed on order under Section 4(1) (B), making it compulsory for all fair price shops in the state to disclose all the details about rations received and kept in the shop.
Pankti Jog of the Pahal which channelised the energy and the determination of the youth to seek justice for himself and for others in his village said that Bhadresh’s initiative will act like a beacon for many others to come forward and fight for what is their rightful due.”
He has struck a blow for most others of his ilk proving where there is a will there is a way.
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