YS Jagan Mohan Reddy paid Rs 84-crore advance tax in September
Individuals engaged in the mining business have emerged the country’s top taxpayers along with film stars, professionals, top-notch CEOs and promoters of large corporations. These individuals, most of whom are prominent politicians or having direct links with the political elite, have shown a quantum jump in their advance tax payments this September.
As advance tax is an indication of the earning expectations of any taxpayer – individual or corporate – it can be gauged that the individuals engaged in the mining business have made astronomical profits during the first half of this fiscal and expect to do so in the coming months as well.
Congress leader and Andhra Pradesh chief minister aspirant YS Jagan Mohan Reddy paid Rs 84-crore advance tax in September, more than 1,000% jump over what he coughed up last year during the same period. For individuals, September being the first installment of their advance tax payments, income expectations in the coming months seem to be very high. Reddy, son of late Andhra Pradesh chief minister YSR, had paid an overall advance tax of Rs 6.7 crore last fiscal. Another individual taxpayer who has enriched the government coffers this fiscal with Rs 7 crore (367% up compared to last year) is wife of politician Janardan Reddy from Karnataka. Gali Lakshmi Aruna has a mining company floated in Bellary. Her husband Janardan Reddy is Karnataka’s minister for tourism and infrastructure and Gali was a strong ally of YS Rajashekar Reddy.
Also on the list is Ramamurthy Praveen Chandra of Jhon Mines who paid Rs 20 crore as advance tax for the April-September period this fiscal, almost 100% up compared to what he paid last year during the corresponding period. His company also features among suppliers to Kineta International, a big name in the minerals industry.
Also on the list of top advance tax payers is one Kamal Jeet Singh Ahluwalia who is in the field of mining of iron ore in Rourkela and BaRBIl in Orissa. He has paid Rs 20 crore as advance tax this September as compared to Rs 12 crore in the last-year period. His total advance tax payment for the whole of last fiscal was Rs 47.5 crore. Similarly, his brother Prashant Kumar Ahluwalia also engaged in the same business paid Rs 10 crore in the September quarter.
The mining industry has been on the government radar for some time over their transactions and also for the people displacement that takes place in the mining process. The government recently has said it is going to make registration of miners and traders mandatory for proper accounting of all minerals-related transactions. The Centre has also asked all the state governments to constitute high-level committees to crack down on illegal mining.
From Goa, Radha Satish Tmblo who is the owner of Timblo enterprises, a mining firm, has paid Rs 9 crore as advance tax compared to Rs 6.8 crore in the September quarter last year. She is from a mining family and has great clout in the area for her political connections.
However, there is also someone whose advance tax payments during this fiscal has declined as compared to the last fiscal. Indrani Patnaik who has mines in Keonjhar that belong to a political family with deep roots in mining trade has paid Rs 15 crore as compared to Rs 28 crore during the last fiscal in September. Patnaik was facing charges from the vigilance department that had stumbled across mine leasehold of her company that was illegal. Against a permission of 0.21 million tonne (MT) ore from an area of 106.1127 hectares ( of which 103.342 patch was forest land), the miner was allowed to raise from an area of 35.27 hectares.
