Young India Case: No Relief To Gandhi Family From IT Agency
Young India Case: No relief to the Gandhi family from the Income Tax Agency in the Young India case
This case is related to the non-payment of tax in the purchase of immovable properties of AJL.
The Income Tax Agency on Thursday upheld the case of immovable commercial property worth over Rs 800 crore against the Gandhi family.
The case pertains to the formation of Young India by the Gandhi family with a share capital of Rs 5 lakh and an amount of Rs 1 crore through hawala from a Kolkata-based shell company.
The matter started with the acquisition of shares of Associated Journals Limited (AJL) on 26 February 2011.
AJL was formed for newspaper publication.
AJL was formed as a Public Limited Company on 20 November 1937 under the Indian Companies Act, 1913, for the publication of newspapers in various languages.
AJL started publishing National Herald in English, Navjeevan in Hindi, and Qaumi Awaaz in Urdu.
In this case, the action of the Income Tax Department and the assessment order were challenged in the Delhi High Court by filing a petition twice by the Gandhi family.
However, the court dismissed both the petitions. On December 6, 2018, the Commissioner of Income Tax Appeal (CIT A) has approved the order of tax levy of Rs 249.15 crore by the Income Tax Officers.
The acquisition of commercial assets of AJL was completed within three months of the formation of Young India without paying any tax and stamp duty.
In an order dated December 27, 2017, the Income Tax Department had assessed a tax of Rs 249.15 crore on the profit of Rs 414.40 crore accrued to the Gandhi family in this ‘fraudulent transaction’.
Young India challenged this CIT(A) order in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal. Its second appeal was disposed of by the agency on 31 March 2022.
In this, the agency upheld the decision of the Assessing Officer and the First Appellate Officer to increase the amount of profit accrued to the Gandhi family to Rs 395 crore.
This brought some relief to the Gandhi family in the form of a shortfall of Rs 17 crore.
Let us tell you, on the complaint of Subramanian Swamy, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also investigating the National Herald case under the provisions of money laundering.
In this regard, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED have accused the then Haryana government of illegally allotting immovable property to AJL.
A charge sheet has also been filed against the then Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and the officials.
The Central and State Governments had allotted properties to AJL for the publication of newspapers at important places at very cheap rates.
