Former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who lost the recent Lok Sabha election from Thiruvananthapuram, declared a taxable income of just Rs 680 (you read that right: six hundred and eighty rupees) for the assessment year 2022-23.

The Election Commission ordered an investigation by the Central Board of Direct Taxes following complaints that the then minister had made a false declaration. He had declared the value of his movable assets at over Rs 28 crore and the value of his self-purchased immovable assets at over Rs 14 crore. How then did he have a taxable income of less than a thousand rupees?

Chandrasekhar claimed innocence. His taxable income in the financial year 2019-20 was Rs 17.5 lakh and Rs 5.5 lakh for the year 2023-24. In other words, he was paying either zero income tax or paying much less than thousands of salaried middle-class professionals.

How was that even possible? As per a report in Malayalam Manorama, his investment in bonds, shares, mutual funds etc. went up from Rs 15.45 crore to Rs 45.73 crore between 2018 and 2024. Chandrasekhar told the newspaper that all his declarations were made ‘as per the law’ and all charges against him were false.

The controversy raged even as the Congress manifesto gave PM Modi a handle to accuse the Congress of conspiring to take away the wealth of Indians. While the manifesto spoke of a progressive taxation policy to reduce concentration of wealth and income, mainstream media targeted Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, of threatening to impose wealth and inheritance tax. (Mr Pitroda had mentioned inheritance tax prevalent in the US as an interesting provision that no longer existed in India.)

It remains to be seen how the government of India will react to the proposal being considered by G20 countries to impose a flat billionaire tax on the wealth of the super-rich.

Meanwhile, the mystery of the mismatch between the........

© National Herald