If the allegation is true, the case is serious: CS on PIL alleging tax evasion by 61 companies

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New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Thursday asked for a response from the Center on a PIL filed by lawyer ML Sharma requesting instructions from the CBI to register an FIR and investigate alleged tax evasion by 61 companies in the smuggling iron ore into China since 2015.

A bench led by Chief Justice NV Ramana told Sharma, who appeared in person: “You want to implicate more than 60 parties? Do you know how many applications will be filed now?

The bench also including Judge Surya Kant asked Sharma to withdraw the petition and file a new full petition.

The bench also asked Sharma to modify the petition prayers and add any necessary parts. “But we won’t order any indictments now until the Center files a counter,” the bench said.

The bench told Sharma to do the necessary research and then amend the petition. Judge Kant asked Sharma: “You have to show how many taxes have been evaded, make specific claims,” ​​replied Sharma that he had researched and collected all the data.

The Chief Justice asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for a cross-affidavit to the petition. Mehta was looking for time. The Chief Justice said: “This is a serious problem. And, if the allegations are true, it is a serious problem that we must address.”

The bench asked Mehta, “Is there any truth in this? Mehta replied to the bench that the fundamental basis of the petition is wrong, but he nevertheless agreed to file a case against the petition.

After hearing the arguments, the highest court scheduled the case for a new hearing after three weeks and asked the Center to respond within two weeks.

In January of this year, a bench led by then Chief Justice SA Bobde after taking note of Sharma’s submission that the companies should be prosecuted for alleged export duty fraud by declaring a wrong tariff code for exporting iron ore in foreign trade (development and regulation) Law of 1992, opinion issued. Then Sharma argued that the “smuggling of iron ore to China” was carried out by companies without paying 30 percent export duties.

PIL asserted that the ministries of trade and finance control and regulate export policies. He added that these ministries also decide under which Harmonized System (HS) codes of each commodity will be exported. The petition claimed that the government had asked KIOCL to use low-grade iron ore and export it under “duty-free tariff code 26011210 which is exclusively prescribed for KIOCL”.

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