Acting at the behest of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the office of Chief Commissioner of Income Tax in Jharkhand has started probing the reported discrepancies found in the returns filed by various mining companies.
The step has been initiated based on the October 14, 2015 letter from the office of CBDT working under Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance written to all Chief Commissioners of Income Tax.
“We have got the directions from CBDT for doing assessments and notices have been issued to the mining lease holders. Some hearings have also taken place in which they have put forth their perspectives,” said a top official of the Income Tax when inquired about.
CBDT while referring the findings of Justice (retd) MB Shah Commission of enquiry constituted for probing illegal iron ore and manganese ore mining has directed all the Income Tax authorities including of Jharkhand to assess cases of discrepancies surfaced. There have been mismatches between the annual return filed by the lease holders with Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) and with the Income Tax about their production and closing stocks.
“In this context, I am directed to convey that while scrutinising the cases of entities engaged in the business of mining, the Annual Return filed with IBM by the respective assesses should invariably be obtained and compared with the details submitted to the Income Tax Department so as to ascertain whether any suppression of production and discrepancy in stock exists and further necessary action as per the provisions of law may be taken,” reads the missive.
Notable to mention here that the MB Shah report had indicated about the IBM’s Regional Controller for Jharkhand and named as many as 21 leases for securing undue favour in getting excessive mining done. “On perusal of some of the said details, it has been noticed that in certain mining leases, modification/review has been done with retrospective effect to cover up lakhs of MT excess production done by the lessees in violation of the provisions of Section 21(5) of the MM(DR) Act, 1957 and the MCDR, 1988. The modification with retrospective effect has been done in many cases, while the leases were in deemed extension without 113 having statutory approvals i.e. EC and/or FC. Hence, it amounts to serious misuse of Rule 24A(6) of MCR, 1960,” said the report.
The report named mining giants like Tata Steel, SAIl and Essel, Usha Martin, Rungta Mines and several others as guilty of wrongdoings and violation of rules. The Commission also said there is a difference of 53.41 MT of iron ore production in the figures of IBM and of State Government that values over about Rs8,685 crore. It had been apprehended that the ore might have been sold to the illegally operated crushers rampant in many parts of Jharkhand and neighbouring.
The enquiry report had mentioned 21 leases out of 42 for which the State Government has submitted the records with it as exemplary cases of misuse of power for extending undue favour.