SIT deputy chairman Justice Arijit Pasayat recently held a meeting with Odisha mining department and asked it to furnish details of H1 forms submitted annually by all 192 lease holders between 2006 and 2011.
The Supreme Court-appointed special investigation team (SIT) on black money turned the spotlight on the Rs 60,000 crore Odisha mining scam by asking the income tax department and the Enforcement Directorate to scrutinize the lease holders’ tax returns and actual extraction of minerals to detect possible generation of black money.
SIT deputy chairman Justice Arijit Pasayat recently held a meeting with Odisha mining department and asked it to furnish details of H1 forms submitted annually by all 192 lease holders between 2006 and 2011.
It is mandatory for all lease holders to file H1 form every year giving details of the mining area, quantity of minerals extracted and sold and the balance stock at the end of the financial year. The mining department submitted the H1 forms filed by all lease holders to the SIT two days ago, sources told TOI.
The SIT has given these H1 forms of lease holders, which include reputed companies like Jindal Steel and Power, Tata Steel BSE 1.17 %, Adhunik group, Kalinga Mining and Rungta group, to the I-T department and the ED. It has asked them to examine whether the annual income tax returns filed by these lease holders reflect the estimated earnings made from mining. The lease holders have denied committing any illegality.
The Justice M B Shah Commission had given a detailed report on the rampant illegal extraction of iron and manganese ore, pegging the scam at Rs 59,203 crore. The SIT thinks a comparison of H1 forms with the I-T returns filed by the lease holders will reveal the income that has been hidden from authorities and possibly converted into black money.
The Justice Shah commission appointed by the SC had said in its report last year, “Since there is involvement of mighty lease holders, big traders of the state and from outside the state, political entities and officers of higher ranks, it will not be possible for state police to find facts and realities and there would be no justice for the quantum of illegalities that took place.
“All modes of illegal mining are being committed in the state of Odisha. There is a complete disregard and contempt for law and lawful authorities on the part of many among emerging breed of entrepreneurs, taking undue advantage of country’s natural non-renewable assets and resources for export earnings.
“The pursuit of super profits has absolutely drained them of any feeling for fellow human beings/for nation and moral values. The law has been made helpless because of its systematic non-implementation.”
Prasanta Patnaik