The Congress MLA said he raised the GST issue when the CPI(M) state secretariat came to the defence of Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter Veena.
Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan (Photo: MLA's website)
Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan intensified his attack on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday, 23 October, alleging that the state and party machinery was being used by the ruling CPI(M) to justify and defend the “loot” by the chief minister and his family.
He tried to justify his allegation by citing a recent letter issued by the State Goods and Services Tax Department which, according to him, only stated that the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) as required under the law has been paid.
The department had issued the letter to state that Exalogic Solutions, owned by Vijayan’s daughter Veena T, had paid the IGST.
The CPI(M) hit back at the Congress MLA accusing him of spreading lies.
Addressing a press conference in Kochi, the Congress MLA from Muvatuppuzha said the letter did not mention the CM’s daughter’s name anywhere and the subject line mentioned only her company’s name.
Therefore, it was not an answer to his query to state Finance Minister KN Balagopal regarding the tax paid on the total ₹1.72 crore received by Veena and her firm from a Kochi-based private company, Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), the Congress leader claimed.
“It was a ‘capsule’ issued by the department to mislead the people and it was swallowed whole by the media. This is an indication of how the state machinery has been used to justify and defend the loot by the CM and his family,” Kuzhalnadan alleged.
He also claimed that Veena had been receiving money from the private company since 1 January 2017 and her firm since 2 March 2017, under separate contracts.
While the firm got its GST registration on 1 July 2017, when the new tax regime came into effect, she got a GST registration only on 17 January 2018, he claimed.
“Therefore, for more than a year she was getting money without a GST registration. So how can anyone claim she paid GST for all the money she got from the private company,” he contended.
Given these facts, he said it would be left to the people to decide whether he — or the state finance minister — should apologise for allegedly misleading the public.
CPI(M) central committee member AK Balan had on Sunday demanded an apology from Kuzhalnadan.
The JNU-educated MLA said that the state and party machinery could be used to target and demoralise him, but he could be intimidated since “God is with me”.
The Congress MLA said he had raised the GST issue when the CPI(M) state secretariat came to the defence of Veena, saying she had remitted the requisite taxes.
He also claimed that he never said that Veena and her firm had paid no GST in connection with the transactions with the Kochi-based company.
“However, we should not get sidetracked from the main issue which is — why Veena got that money without providing any service? The money was given to gain favours from the CM,” he alleged.
Hitting back at Kuzhalnadan, Balan said that no one with an iota of common sense could term the financial transactions between Veena and her firm and the private company as alleged payment without providing any professional service or black money as the requisite taxes were paid.
“He (Kuzhalnadan) is turning turtle now about what he said in the past. People can see that. He can go to court if he feels so strongly about it. No one is stopping him. But he should stop spreading this false propaganda daily,” Balan said.
The GST department’s clarification came amidst a raging row over financial transactions between Veena’s firm and the minerals company.
Kuzhalnadan has raised corruption allegations against Veena in connection with the transaction between her firm and the Kochi-based minerals company.
He had also sought to know whether Veena had remitted IGST for the over ₹1 crore that she had received from the minerals company.
The MLA has also recently sought a vigilance probe into the corruption allegations.
A controversy erupted in Kerala recently over financial transactions between the Kochi-based private company and Veena and her IT firm.
Evidence showed that the company had dealings with top leaders of both the ruling CPI(M) as well as the opposition Congress-led UDF.
The issue came to the fore when a Malayalam daily, Malayala Manorama, created a sensation by carrying the news that Vijayan’s daughter Veena had allegedly received ₹1.72 crore from CMRL in monthly installments over the past three years.
The news report, citing a ruling of an Interim Board for Settlement, said the Kochi-based company previously had an agreement with Veena’s IT firm for consultancy and software support services.
Even though no service had been rendered by her firm, the amount was paid every month “due to her relationship with a prominent person”, the report said, citing the deposition of the minerals company authorities before the Income Tax Department.
However, Vijayan rubbished the charges and said the allegations were made to tarnish his image and defame him.
Earlier, sources in the I-T Department told South First that the CMRL had conducted unaccounted-for transactions of ₹134 crore between 2013 and 2020.
Out of this amount, ₹95 crore was paid to politicians, their immediate family members, media houses, officials, and some journalists, the sources added.
The public-sector Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) has a 13.41 percent share in CMRL.
The Opposition has been urging the state government to prompt the KSIDC to initiate legal action against the CMRL for committing financial fraud.
The I-T Department has said the company inflated its losses to pay politicians, who would have otherwise opposed the environmental degradation caused by the company on the mineral-rich Kerala coast.
According to reports, Veena and Exalogic Solutions had a contract with the CMRL to offer the latter IT, marketing consulting, and software services.
The I-T Department reportedly claimed that no services were provided.
(With PTI inputs)
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