Kerala: GST department silent on IGST pay of CM's daughter Veena Vijayan

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter Veena Vijayan's firm Exalogic allegedly received payment from a private company Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) in monthly installments in the last three years without providing any service.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) department did not address a query about whether the company owned by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter Veena Vijayan paid the IGST. Whether the company owned by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter Veena paid the IGST was a query that the GST department did not address. The GST department stated that due to the people's right to privacy, they cannot respond. The reply was given under the Right to Information Act. There was also no reply from the firm whether they paid the tax or not. If the government received the tax money, that question is also unanswered. Additionally, there was no progress in the investigation of Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan's IGST complaint.

Veena Vijayan allegedly received Rs 1.72 crore from a private company Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) in monthly installments in the last three years. According to reports, Veena and her company, Exalogic Solutions, had a contract with the CMRL to offer the latter IT, marketing consulting, and software services. The income tax department has reportedly claimed that no services were, however, provided. 

Kuzhalnadan filed a complaint in August alleging that Veena Vijayan's firm did not pay IGST of Rs 1.72 crore received from CMRL. The finance minister forwarded the complaint to the tax department on the 21st of the previous month. A document that was previously released revealed that just Rs. 45 lakh of the Rs. 57 lakh Veena Vijayan's Exalogic company CMRL got had been taxed. 

Between August 2017 and October 2018, Veena's company issued an invoice of Rs 45 lakh to CMRL. Accordingly, CMRL paid Exalogic Rs 53,10,000 including Rs 45 lakh and 18 percent tax. The server records also show that Exalogic has paid IGST of Rs.8,10,000 as tax amount as per the invoice. These documents are in Form 2B of CMRL. That is, only 18 per cent of taxed documents of Rs 45 lakhs are available now. However, the tax records of the rest of the transactions are not available.