JOIN USI-T tribunal indicts NDTV for money laundering
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal has stated that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs appeared to be hand in glove with the owners of NDTV in “hiding” financial information of the foreign shell companies floated and used for money laundering.
An order from the tribunal said NDTV and its promoters “laundered Rs 1,100 crore of black money during 2007-08 to 2009-10, of which recovery of black money to the tune of Rs 642.54 crore and its laundering has been confirmed by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT)”.
“The ITAT confirmed the finding of the Income Tax Department that (channel co-founder) Prannoy Roy made conscious attempts to hide financial details of foreign paper subsidiary companies of NDTV by not attaching audited profit loss accounts, balance sheets and annual reports of these foreign shell companies along with the annual report of NDTV,” the order read.
Reacting, NDTV on its website said that “most of the charges in the ITAT (Income Tax Appellate Tribunal) order dated July 14 are in fact not so much against NDTV as they are against the US media giant NBC and one of the most respected global companies GE (and only by implication is NDTV charged) — yet the harassment of NDTV continues, while not even a letter of enquiry has been sent to GE/NBC”.
In the interest of transparency, NDTV said it has repeatedly put in public domain all the facts around the NBCUniversal investment of $150 million in 2008.
“These facts are backed by thousands of pages of documentation, and by three years’ worth of emails between NDTV and NBC/GE.
“We invite any financial journalist or member of the public to see these details for themselves and uncover that the income tax charges are as baseless as the CBI ‘loan restructuring’,” NDTV said.