02-16-2006, 07:27 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Chawla diverted sale money to evade tax </b>
Pioneer News Service / New Delhi
Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's attempt to wriggle out of charges of political partisanship by claiming that the trusts run by him and his wife had also received money from BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley's wife seems to have landed him in more trouble.
He and his wife now face charges of tax evasion by the two trusts besides allegations of receiving large sums from MPLAD funds of the Congress MPs, which, according to the Opposition, is proof of his blatant political partisanship.
<b>A news report published in the Hindu on Thursday had claimed that the Lepra India Trust run by Mr Chawla's wife Rupika Chawla had received donations of Rs 13,000 and Rs 28,000 in 2002 from the BJP leader's wife Sangeeta and another relative.</b>
But in an immediate rejoinder, Mr Jaitley said these cheques were not given to Mrs Chawla as donations for her trust but as payments for the furniture his wife and sister had brought from her Defence Colony outlet.
Mr Jaitley said showing these payments for goods sold as "donations" by the trust, instead of income from business, amounted to tax evasion. The BJP leader now plans to write to the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes to demand an investigation into the matter.
Mr Jaitley said Mrs Chawla was dealing in art objects and furniture and she had requested his wife to visit her furniture shop in Defence Colony, where some good pieces of furniture from Pondicherry were kept for sale.
<b>"My wife and sister visited the shop, bought some furniture and made out two cheques for the amounts of furniture bought in the name of an entity named by Mrs Chawla," </b>he said.
<b>He referred to The Hindu report which said that in her letter dated June 19, 2002 to the Join Secretary in the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Mrs Chawla had shown these payments as "donations" and sought 100-per cent tax exemption under Section 35 of the Income Tax Act.</b>
<b>"Two significant facts clearly emerge from this. The first is that the Lepra Trust was running a business while posing as a charitable welfare organisation in violation of the law. And, secondly, it was evading tax by showing income from business as donation,"</b> Mr Jaitley asserted.
The BJP leader said he would press for a CBDT probe into the matter and demand that the working of the trusts run by Mr Chawla and his wife as well as its tax liability should be investigated thoroughly.
He accused Mr Chawla and his wife of making inaccurate statements to diver attention from the charges that their trusts received large sums from Congress MPs only due to the family's proximity with top Congress leaders.
Mr Jaitley pointed out that Mr Chawla had earlier claimed that the Lepra Trust had refused a donation of Rs 5 lakh from the then Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma because Mr Verma was not the area MP.
"But the fact is that the Lepra Trust was located in the Outer Delhi Lok Sabha constituency that Mr Verma represented and there is no record of the offer having being made or denied in the records of the municipal corporation."
He made it clear that the BJP was not going to let Mr Chawla off the hook. Despite his attempts to distort facts to deny his proximity with the Congress party and its top leaders.
"We will press for Mr Chawla's removal more forcefully and the party MPs would soon sumbit a petition in this regard to the Chief Election Commissioner and the President. And we will now also demand a closer scrutiny into the working of the trusts run by Mr Chawla and his wife and whether they were concealing income from the business run by them," he said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pioneer News Service / New Delhi
Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's attempt to wriggle out of charges of political partisanship by claiming that the trusts run by him and his wife had also received money from BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley's wife seems to have landed him in more trouble.
He and his wife now face charges of tax evasion by the two trusts besides allegations of receiving large sums from MPLAD funds of the Congress MPs, which, according to the Opposition, is proof of his blatant political partisanship.
<b>A news report published in the Hindu on Thursday had claimed that the Lepra India Trust run by Mr Chawla's wife Rupika Chawla had received donations of Rs 13,000 and Rs 28,000 in 2002 from the BJP leader's wife Sangeeta and another relative.</b>
But in an immediate rejoinder, Mr Jaitley said these cheques were not given to Mrs Chawla as donations for her trust but as payments for the furniture his wife and sister had brought from her Defence Colony outlet.
Mr Jaitley said showing these payments for goods sold as "donations" by the trust, instead of income from business, amounted to tax evasion. The BJP leader now plans to write to the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes to demand an investigation into the matter.
Mr Jaitley said Mrs Chawla was dealing in art objects and furniture and she had requested his wife to visit her furniture shop in Defence Colony, where some good pieces of furniture from Pondicherry were kept for sale.
<b>"My wife and sister visited the shop, bought some furniture and made out two cheques for the amounts of furniture bought in the name of an entity named by Mrs Chawla," </b>he said.
<b>He referred to The Hindu report which said that in her letter dated June 19, 2002 to the Join Secretary in the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Mrs Chawla had shown these payments as "donations" and sought 100-per cent tax exemption under Section 35 of the Income Tax Act.</b>
<b>"Two significant facts clearly emerge from this. The first is that the Lepra Trust was running a business while posing as a charitable welfare organisation in violation of the law. And, secondly, it was evading tax by showing income from business as donation,"</b> Mr Jaitley asserted.
The BJP leader said he would press for a CBDT probe into the matter and demand that the working of the trusts run by Mr Chawla and his wife as well as its tax liability should be investigated thoroughly.
He accused Mr Chawla and his wife of making inaccurate statements to diver attention from the charges that their trusts received large sums from Congress MPs only due to the family's proximity with top Congress leaders.
Mr Jaitley pointed out that Mr Chawla had earlier claimed that the Lepra Trust had refused a donation of Rs 5 lakh from the then Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma because Mr Verma was not the area MP.
"But the fact is that the Lepra Trust was located in the Outer Delhi Lok Sabha constituency that Mr Verma represented and there is no record of the offer having being made or denied in the records of the municipal corporation."
He made it clear that the BJP was not going to let Mr Chawla off the hook. Despite his attempts to distort facts to deny his proximity with the Congress party and its top leaders.
"We will press for Mr Chawla's removal more forcefully and the party MPs would soon sumbit a petition in this regard to the Chief Election Commissioner and the President. And we will now also demand a closer scrutiny into the working of the trusts run by Mr Chawla and his wife and whether they were concealing income from the business run by them," he said.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->