Fight Against Corruption : Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi faces Rs 57 crore penalty by Income Tax
New Delhi, Nov 15: A penalty of Rs 57 crore has been slapped on Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi by the Income Tax department.
The Income Tax Settlement Commission levied a penalty of nearly Rs 57 crore on Abhishek Manu Singhvi after he failed to provide documents backing his claims of expenditure for running his office.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi had approached the Settlement Commission, which is a dispute resolution entity, seeking immunity for prosecution. However the panel refused to accept his plea and levied a penalty of nearly Rs 57 crore.
“Settlement Commission has added over Rs 91.95 crore to his declared professional income over a three-year period and slapped a penalty of Rs 56.67 crore,” Singhvi’s office said.
The Jodhpur income tax commissioner, who looked into the case, found high cash withdrawals from Abhishek Manu Singhvi’s accounts.
However the Congress leader couldn’t provide documents regarding the expenses. During financial year 2010-11, Abhishek Manu Singhvi showed expenditure of Rs 16 crore.
What raised doubt that the majority of the payments were made between January and March. In 2011, for instance, there were over 18,000 vouchers of which 1,200 were dated March 31.
When asked for documents, Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that a termite attack on the premises of his chartered accountant had destroyed all records of the vouchers.
Similarly, Abhishek Manu Singhvi also failed to furnish documents supporting his other expenses like fee and subscription of around Rs 75 lakh, fee for legal assistance of around Rs 8 crore and spending related to books and journals of another Rs 75 lakh.
The Income Tax Settlement department also raised doubts over Abhishek Singhvi’s claim that he purchased laptops worth Rs 5 crore for his staff, which entitled him to 30 per cent depreciation.
Congress leader offered to pay tax on 75 per cent of the gross professional fee, besides withdrawing the Rs 1.5 crore depreciation claimed on laptops.
However the Income Tax panel argued that senior Supreme Court lawyers disclose 95 per cent of their gross professional fee for tax.
The Income Tax Settlement Commission ruled that the Income Tax department should levy tax on 90 per cent of the gross professional receipts on Abhishek Manu Singhvi after allowing 10 per cent as reasonable expenses against professional expenditure.
“The very operation of the order of the Settlement Commission (SC), being bandied around, has been stayed by the high court.
Thus, in law, no order exists and none is operative,” Amit Bhandari, an authorized representative of Singhvi, said in a statement.
The panel had issued order or penalty on Singhvi in the last week of September after which he approached the Jodhpur bench of Rajasthan HC which stayed the order passed on September 11.
