Income of Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan multiplied by over 100 times in six years from Rs 529 crore to Rs 54,268 crore in 2006-07, reveals CAG report tabled in Parliament today. Khan, who is presently in custody of the Enforcement Directorate, has not filed returns for several years despite earning crores, Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said.
His taxable income, according to the assessment made by Income Tax Authorities, jumped from Rs 528.9 crore in 2001-02 (assessment year) to Rs 5404.7 crore in 2002-03. Thereafter, it soared to Rs 54,268.6 crore in 2006-7.
The report further said that Hasan Ali did not file income tax returns for five assessment years from 2001-02 to 2003-04 and 2005-07.
However, he filed the tax returns for these years in May 2007 after IT notice following search operations.
The CAG also said “while computing his tax liability for the AYs (assessment year), the (IT) Department levied interest of Rs 706.1 crore instead of Rs 4,056 crore for default in furnishing returns and Rs 10,033.3 crore instead of Rs 9,756.9 crore for default in payment of advance tax”.
The report said in 2008-09 out of Rs 2 lakh crore that remained uncollected, “one group namely Hassan Ali alone accounted for Rs 71,874 crore of uncollected demand”.
Hasan Ali, 53, yesterday surrendered before the ED after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail and remanded him to four days’ ED custody.
No one is interested in unearthing the reasons for the Income Tax Department’s reluctance to proceed against this person in more than a decade, despite his properties/bank accounts and transactions therein. There must have been regular payments to high officials by him. Or, else there must have been pressures from the top. No other possibility. And, in the process, due to the systematic and deliberate clipping of Income Tax Act over the years, the State has lost huge taxes which can never be recovered even by the assistance of the Supreme Court. Why can’t someone write about the need for an exposure of the officers responsible for this heinous crime against the nation ever since Ali stopped filing Returns? This is because, the Department has been mercilessly extra-sensitive in the cases of small traders, small time operators and retired salaried people.