The Taxman cometh

Most of you will remember my recent article about Mr. Hassan Ali, whose name has now gone from page 5 to page 0 ( zero) since he's yesterdays news and enough favours have been called in.

You may remember my shock at the way a person who has diddled around with 35000 Cr of funds cannot be arrested due to a lacunae in the law.

Today there was an article in the paper which was so funny that it was tragic.

The Supreme Court has ruled that "IT-defaulters are liable for criminal prosecution". The ruling says "Its true that the Act (Income tax) provides for imposition of penalty for non-payment of tax. That, however, does not take away the power to prosecute accused persons if an offense has been committed by them".

The amount in question 1,29,348/- which was later paid by the appellants Madhumilan Syntex along with all applicable fines and penal interest.

Rs. 1,29,348/- worth of default = jail
Rs. 35,000 crores worth of scam = get out of Jail free card

As Gabbar Singh says in Sholay - bhaut na insaffee hai yeh.

Moral of the day: Think Big.

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In an unrelated article, The headlines in the Eco times screamed that the Income Tax dept is claiming US$ 1.9 Billion ( yes read that correctly Billion with a B) as Capital gains on the sale of Hutch Shares by HTIL.

For us mere mortal lets translate that to real money -
( 1 Mn = 10 lakhs ,
1 Bn = 1000 Mn
so what they are claiming is US$ 19,000 Lakhs or
Indian Rupees 874,000 lakhs
or simply INR 874 Crores. )

Hint Hint Mr. Taxman - 33% of 35,000 Cr diddled by Mr. Ali is Rs. 10,000 Cr + which is far more than what youre asking HTIL for so that should get top priority for recovery.

Also as per my article above, the govt now has the power to arrest Mr. Hassan Ali based upon the Supreme Court judgements. it will be interesting to note if they actually do.

Lastly , I wonder if and when we do get this 10,874 Cr ( both the above figures combined ) will our dear FM, Please Please give us a small tax break by increasing the exemption limit.