Shillong, June 07: Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) demands that a probe into individuals named in the Panama Papers and the associated companies both offshore and state based should be expanded to include the transactions they have entered into with the Meghalaya government over the years. Many of the individuals, their business partners, and their companies have been named repeatedly in several CAG reports for stealing subsidy, defaulting on electricity dues, illegal loan benefits, incomplete projects etc.
In the press statement TUR suspects that what lies behind these so called ‘investments’ in companies based in offshore ’tax havens’ are nothing but public money being diverted. Hence TUR demands that all state support to all entities and individuals associated in anyway with people named and their associates should immediately be stopped and these individuals and all their companies and subsidiaries be blacklisted.
The individuals named cannot hide behind vague legalese but have to come clean and make public the nature and sources of their ‘investments’ including the nature of business of the two offshore companies Azure Enterprises Global Inc. and Eternal Enterprises Inc which incidentally date from the days when RBI had not expanded Liberalised Remittance Scheme to allow offshore investments.
TUR alleged that an amount of ` 2.80 crore was paid as Central Subsidy (CCISS and CISS) under NEIIPP, 2007 to a private firm M/s Greystone Strips Pvt. Ltd., Byrnihat, Directors Bokstar Kurkalang and Rohit Jain which started commercial production in August 2009. As the firm had closed down its operation in February 2011 before expiry of the minimum period of two years as required, the entire amount should have been refunded by it. Neither the firm has refunded the subsidy nor the Department made any effort to recover the subsidy amount of ` 2.80 crore as stipulated in the guidelines.
Further,TUR said that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Shillong had conducted an investigation in January in 2013 into alleged fraudulent drawal of subsidies under NEIPP 2007 by the above unit. The CBI informed the DCI May 2013 that the unit had closed down in February 2011 shortly after receiving the central subsidies and requested to furnish information regarding the recovery action taken against the unit as per NEIPP 2007 guidelines. We observed that apart from issuing a show cause notice July 2013 to the unit, the DCI had not taken any further action for recovery of the amount paid to the unit so far (eptember 2014.
