Uk Tobacco Firm Nominee Quizzed In Itc Case
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) flagged off its third round of investigation into ITC's alleged $100 million Fera violation case by questioning Peter Leonard, the liaison officer for a leaf tobacco merchant company in the UK. ED sources refused to divulge the exact name of the firm of which Leonard is an employee.
Leonard, who is stationed at Guntur, presented himself before the department here yesterday. He is the representative of a leaf tobacco buyer to whom the Indian Leaf Tobacco Division (ILTD) is alleged to have exported the product at an under-invoiced price.
This is for the first time that non- ITC sources are being tapped for information and to corroborate evidences.
The coming two weeks are expected to be crucial as the ED has sent out summons to both buyers and sellers of leaf tobacco who transacted business with the ILTD in the years under scrutiny, from 1992 to April 1996.
The volume of leaf tobacco exported and the price difference at which this was bought and sold is expected to be ascertained. Earlier, the ED had said that they were in possession of evidence indicating that $82.5 million was transferred into the country on ITC's instructions on the basis of accounts maintained by the Chitalia companies.
It is alleged that the ITC management virtually gave daily instructions to structure the invoices relating to exports so that extra profits could be shown in the books of the tobacco major.
ED authorities expect to arrive at an exact figure at the end of the fortnight. In the next two weeks, the ED expects to question tobacco growers and sellers from Guntur from whom leaf tobacco was bought and representatives of buyers abroad. ED authorities are tightlipped about disclosing the names of persons who have been summoned as it is likely to hamper the investigation.
"We are trying to resolve the case at the earliest," an official said. During March, the allegations against ITC that the ED plans to look into include:
$4 million that is supposed to be retained abroad and transferred through a Swiss numbered account to benefit non-resident Indians in the US for the Bukhara restaurant deal.
Import of over-invoiced machinery from Italian company Garoma Anstalt by ITC Bhadrachalam.
A sum of $6.5 million transferred from ITC Global Holdings to the Chitalia companies and the sum remitted to ITC showing it as a export transactions.