Thiruvananthapuram: Finance Minister C N Balagopal will consider the complaint against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T over alleged IGST evasion. Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan lodged the complaint with the minister on Saturday.
It is learnt that the finance minister will examine the complaint on Monday as he was not in the office for the last two days. Kuzhalnadan had sent the complaint to the finance minister online while addressing a press meet in Kottayam.
With this, all eyes are on the finance minister’s stance on the complaint.
In his complaint, the Muvattupuzha MLA urged the minister to recover the tax arrears to be paid by the chief minister’s daughter on a sum of Rs 1.72 crore her company Exalogic received from another firm.
Kuzhalnadan also challenged the CPM, which had defended Veena after a controversy broke out over the payments received by her, to clarify if she had paid the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) on the amount received from CMRL. He said the ruling party will have to admit that the payment was nothing but political funding if they cannot produce evidence of tax payments.
“Her (Veena) IT firm received more money from the private mineral company. According to documents accessed by me, her company suffered a loss of more than Rs 63 lakh since 2014. According to documents, she invested around Rs 78 lakh to maintain her company,” Kuzhalnadan alleged. He alleged that the cash received by Veena’s firm was “political funding”, he alleged.
Meanwhile, CPM leader A K Balan challenged Kuzhalnadan to approach the court against Veena. He claimed that the Congress MLA can’t go even into the courtyard of the court with such a fake complaint. The former minister also asked Kuzhalnadan whether he will end his political life and tender an apology if his allegations of tax evasion against the CM’s daughter proved wrong.
Kuzhalnadan launched his attack against Veena and CPM after Malayala Manorama recently reported that Cochin Minerals And Rutile Ltd paid a total of Rs 1.72 crore to the CM’s daughter between 2017 and 2020.
The news report, citing the recent ruling of an Interim Board for Settlement, said that the Kochi-based company previously had an agreement with Veena’s IT firm for consultancy and software support services.
Despite the fact that no service was rendered by her firm, the amount was paid on a monthly basis “due to her relationship with a prominent person”, the report said citing the deposition of the minerals company authorities before the Income Tax Department.
