The Finance department is reportedly moving to verify the accusations of IGST evasion by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter T. Veena, even as the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP ) tapped into the contentious imputations to supercharge their campaign engines for the bypoll in the Puthuppally Assembly constituency, scheduled for September 5.
A much-publicised petition for a probe from Congress leader Mathew Kuzhalnadan, MLA, to Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal will likely set the default procedure in motion.
A Kochi-based mining company had engaged Veena on a retainer as a consultant and IT services provider during the 2016-20 period. A political scandal erupted when a statutory IT disputes settlement forum in New Delhi deemed the mining company could not claim an input tax credit for the remittances to Veena on the premise that her IT firm had rendered no discernible service to the client company.
The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) portrayed the retainer as a bribe, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] defended it as an honest business transaction between two companies. The CPI(M) also alleged that the anti-government campaigns of the Congress and the BJP were strikingly concordant.
‘Legitimate deals’
Former Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac said Mr. Kuzhalnadan should retract his accusations against Veena and apologise. He pointed out that by alleging that Veena’s firm had dodged IGST on retainers, Mr. Kuzhalnadan acknowledged that the transaction between the two firms with separate GST registrations was legitimate, and not a bribe.
Dr. Isaac accused the Congress of hiding behind a smokescreen to cover the party’s failure to develop the Puthuppally Assembly constituency for 53 years. Voters would punish the ‘concerted’ attempt of the Congress and BJP to undermine the State’s development.
Invite to Isaac
Mr. Kuzhalnadan replied that he would apologise if the CPI(M) proved him wrong. He set a 24-hour deadline for the CPI(M) to publish documents showing Veena was in the clear. Earlier, Mr. Kuzhalnadan had invited Dr. Isaac to inspect his finances and uncover wrongdoing, if any.
Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan sought to hammer the alleged scandal into the heart of the Puthuppally’s electorate to disparage the CPI(M). In New Delhi, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajiv Chandrasekhar said crony capitalism involving businesses and CPI(M) leaders prevailed in Kerala.
