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The Delhi Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal has allowed an appeal filed by the directors of Young Indian, including Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, against the Income Tax assessment of the properties of Associated Journals Ltd in the National Herald case here on Thursday.
The case is that Young Indian acquired the entire stake of AJL in a paltry sum of ₹50 lakh to promote democratic and secular society on the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru. It was also alleged that all transactions brought in the realm of charitable activities.
The order found anomalies in the values of properties owned by the AJL. It said the circle rate which has been proposed by the AJL for valuing the property is not acceptable, because circle rate is not the right benchmark in all cases for determining the actual market value of property in Delhi especially where the property is located.
"Here it is found as a matter of fact that even in the sale instance of residential property at Tolstoy Marg, the sale rate was many times higher than the circle rate. In any case, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg and Tolstoy Marg fall in the same zone i.e., Zone – A for the purpose of circle rate and if the property at Tolstoy Marg has been sold at a much higher price than the circle rate, then ostensibly the circle rate cannot be held to be applicable for the property at Bahadurshah Zafar Marg, which is near to ITO and has big commercial establishments having high commercial value, therefore, the value of Bahadurshah Zafar Marg at any day would never be much lower than the Tolstoy Marg," the order said.
The order also demanded an enquiry against Dotex, a Kolkata-based company that provided loan worth ₹1 crore to AJL. "Dotex should be inquired independently to establish its source of funds and the entire transaction of the loan given to the appellant. Assessing Officer should also provide all the information and material gathered and communicated by the Investigation wing including STR report to the appellant," the order said.
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