Even as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee assured he Lok Sabha on Monday of a probe on all aspects of IPL, the enforcement directorate, which is already investigating the funding of various IPL franchises, met the finance ministry officials to brief them about the possible use of black money in IPL. The income tax (IT) officials also held meetings on the issue.
According to the IT department, Sunanda Pushkar may owe tax liability to the tune of Rs 25 crore even though she has returned her sweat equity in Rendezvous Sports World, the Kochi IPL franchise partner.
Senior I-T officials told FE that the tax liability on Pushkar would have been over Rs 25 crore, if she had not surrendered the equity. ?If she was an employee of Rendezvous, her shares worth about Rs 76 crore would have been treated as perquisites and taxed accordingly. Alternatively, as an employee, the transfer without consideration could have been taxed as gift tax that would amount to Rs 25 crore approximately,? a senior official said. The gift tax works out to 33.3 % including surcharges plus penalty and is charged on the entire gift amount (transfer without consideration).
Meanwhile, in a late Sunday night development minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor stepped down over his links to the IPL Kochi franchise. Tharoor resigned after a weeklong after it came to light that his friend and Dubai-based business woman Sunanda Pushkar had received sweat equity worth Rs 70 crore in the deal. Pushkar was not even a director on the Kochi franchise and yet was the recipient of 19% sweat equity in Rendezvous Sports, a company that was the consortium partner of new Kochi?s IPL team that was auctioned last month.
The government has already launched an investigation into the funding sources of Rajasthan Royals, a highly placed source said.
The finance ministry is taking a detailed look at the I-T department report, compiled after visiting IPL franchisee offices and the premises of IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.
?We have already sent a report to the finance minister. We are in the process of gathering further information,? a senior I-T official told FE. The department would share the information with the ED.