Income Tax lens on K Babu for false returns

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former excise minister K. Babu, facing the bar bribery probe, may also come under the Income Tax scanner for furnishing false statements while filing Income Tax returns. According to sources, Mr Babu had not shown travel allowances and other allowances as income while filing Income Tax returns. However, in his statements to the vigilance he was learnt to have stated that allowances also need to be considered as income. This could lead to a contradiction.

Sources said that though allowances were not considered as income, the unspent portion of allowances should be considered as income. For instance, if an official gets Rs. 10,000 as travel allowance, but the travel expenses came to only around Rs. 7,000, the remaining Rs. 3,000 need to be considered as income and it would be taxable.

As per the Income Tax returns filed by Mr Babu for 2014-15 period, while he was minister, his annual income was shown as Rs. 3.58 lakh. Sources said that he had only shown the salary as income, while the other allowances were not shown as income before the Income Tax. But now he is trying to show allowances as income in order to justify his wealth. This contradiction could attract actions for filing false Income Tax returns. Vigilance had already collected details of the allowances paid to him by the government.