Vibrant Gujarat MoUs under I-T scanner

Dept seeks details of companies that signed Rs 1,000-cr MoUs.

The Income Tax Department has issued a notice to the Gujarat government seeking the details of the companies that signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 1,000 crore or more in the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summits (VGGIS) held during 2009 and 2011.

The notice was issued under section 131 (1A) of the Income Tax Act of 1961 seeking all the details about the companies and the MoUs signed by them. Minister of state for industries, Saurabh Patel informed the state assembly on Tuesday that the government had received the letter issued by the income tax department and would decide on the future course of action in days to come.

However, he strongly criticised the approach of the state’s Opposition, the Congress, for targeting the progress of Gujarat. The minister also came down heavily on the central government for using government agencies including the income tax department for targeting Gujarat.

In December 2010, leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Shaktisinh Gohil, had demanded a scrutiny by the department of the MoUs signed in the VGGIS events.

Gohil had written a letter to the union finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee prior to the latest VGGIS event organised in January this year, drawing Mukherjee’s attention towards the hundreds of crores of rupees being promised by the industrialists and corporate in the biannual event.

“This calls for a detailed scrutiny of the accounts of the companies by the tax authorities to check whether there is any irregularity or tax evasion by them,” Gohil wrote in his letter to the finance minister dated December 10, 2010.

However, the VGGIS 2011 had witnessed floods of investment promises worth Rs 20.83 lakh crore ($450 billion) with as many as 7,936 MoUs signed and promising to generate employment for around 5.2 million people in Gujarat.