The Hindu : National : Ministry to check for any tax violations

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 09, 2005

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Ministry to check for any tax violations

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry may independently scrutinise whether there are any tax violations by the 125 Indian companies named by the Volcker committee report for allegedly paying kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein Government to get contracts under the U.N. oil-for-food programme.

``There is no formal probe but we will look into the tax returns of the 125 companies in the normal course to see whether there is any violation,'' a top Finance Ministry official told PTI.

This will be independent of the judicial probe by former Chief Justice R.S. Pathak into Volcker's findings.

The official said there might be an examination of their tax returns to check for any violation.

What was needed to be seen was if there was any tax evasion by understatement of profits by the Indian companies by showing payments made to the Iraqi regime, which according to Volcker report add up to Rs. 100 crores, the official said.

The 623-page U.N. inquiry report by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker is understood to have named 125 Indian companies.

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