House panel pulls up I-T for IPL mess, seeks action on BCCI

The Income Tax (I-T) department received flak from parliamentarians on Thursday for being “lax” and “lenient on BCCI” for the Indian Premier League (IPL) mess. The parliamentary standing committee on finance on Thursday finalised its report where it has sought a thorough probe on the role of the IT department.

It has also asked the Centre to investigate the alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations of the BCCI and four IPL franchises: Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders, Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab. The panel has sought RBI action against Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and the Jaipur branch of State Bank of Travancore for non-compliance with the FEMA. The report of the committee will be tabled in Parliament during the winter session and the parliamentary panel will seek an action taken report within a month.

The BCCI had sought tax exemptions of Rs274.86 crore for 2007-08, Rs377.33 crore for 2008-09 and Rs216.64 crore for 2009-10.

Further, the IT department had slapped Rs160 crore towards service tax for franchise fee, business consultancy services and sale of advertisement space. But the BCCI has so far paid just R5 crore.

The parliamentary panel has concluded that the investments made by the four franchises were routed outside India from Mauritius, Bahamas and British Virgin Island but they didn't seen RBI or FIPB permission to get money from outside.