The Income Tax department probing alleged irregularities in the funding and bidding of IPL franchisees has received reports relating to expenses incurred by franchisees in South Africa where the second edition of the T20 tournament took place last year. The reports are being corroborated with the documents of documents containing bidding and other financial details of IPL franchisees obtained by the I-T officials during surveys of offices of various franchisees and IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi. Sources said the reports received by the department as part of the tax agreement between India and South Africa has been sent by the Financial Intelliegence department of South Africa.
he reports contain expenditure and investment summary of all sources and a family-tree format of all entities related to the IPL sent by the South African authorities. The department is also tallying the various financial details including PAN card data, Annual Information Return (AIR) of the IPL organisers, players, coaches, publicity companies and others involved in the tournament, the sources said. The Mumbai investigation wing of the department is coordinating with other probe wings of the department.
Sources said that I-T investigators were looking at matching the transaction reports in connection with search and survey operations conducted at the offices of Multi-Screen Media, formerly Sony Entertainment Television, International Management Group and World Sports Group (WSG), all of which are closely connected to the Modi-led IPL. MSM is the telecasting agency of IPL, while WSG is its marketing arm. IMG is the organising agency of the IPL. Sources said the department has also received reports of similar nature from some other countries but refrained from naming them.
These inputs have been processed and forwarded to the investigators of the IPL probe. The top brass of the Finance ministry, Income Tax department and financial intelligence sleuths had yesterday held a closed-door meet in the national capital. I-T officials including the Director-General of Investigations in Mumbai flew down here and briefed top CBDT and Finance Ministry officials about the probe that is now being carried out across the country on various IPL franchises and others. PTI
