Mayawati: Love and Affection turns in to wealth

      Aided by the Income tax Department, and the Congress Maya’s annual income jumps to Rs 60 crore  

Rs 15 Crore Advance Tax Till Dec 

 Pradeep Thakur | TNN  New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati is growing richer by the year. During the last financial year, her income was estimated at an impressive Rs 52 crore. This financial year, her income is on course to crossing Rs 60 crore.
   Till the quarter ended December 31, the Dalit czarina had paid Rs 15 crore as advance tax. At 33% income tax slab, this works out to an income of about Rs 45 crore. If the trend continues between December 15, when the last instalment of advance tax was paid, and March 31, 2008, she could end the year with an income of over Rs 60 crore.
   Indeed, if the turnout at her January 15 birthday bash is any indication, she could close the year with a much higher income. The BSP chief has attributed her remarkable financial rise to “gifts” from her generous supporters.
   Based on her Rs 9.7 crore payout on December 15, Mayawati was already ranked 18th in the all-India individual taxpayers category, a remarkable rise for the former government schoolteacher. And based on her payments till December, which amounted to Rs 15 crore, she was placed 19th.
   She is ranked a few notches below Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan in the advance tax list. Not only is Mayawati’s income more than that of any politician, she ranks higher than the Ambani brothers, Birlas, Bachchans, Ratan Tata and Infosys’s Nandan Nilekani.
         Kumaramangalam Birla trails the the Dalit leader way behind, at 57th place, while the richest cricketer, Master Blaster Tendulkar is a distant 85th. Aamir Khan is placed even farther, at a not-so-impresive 123rd.
         Mayawati’s explanation of a turaround in her fortunes may appear a fairy tale to many, but was accepted last year by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which legitimized her claim.

       The script is likely to remain the same this year as well. More so, as she is in power. Though the finance ministry usually does not get into proving the source of income of individuals, it has in Mayawati’s case, as in many other instances earlier, shown its readiness to examine the veracity of her claim.
   Mayawati in her statements before the taxmen and to CBI, which is investigating her in a disproportionate assets case, had claimed that her supporters had given her large amounts of cash and pledged their personal properties out of “love and affection” and for the welfare of the downtrodden and the Dalits.

RICHER AND RICHER       BSP chief paid Rs 15cr advance tax till December, indicating total income of around Rs 45cr till then
      Her income, estimated at Rs 52cr during 2006-07, is likely to cross Rs 60cr
      Maya ranks 19th, going by her advance payment, behind Shah Rukh Khan but far ahead of the Ambani brothers, Tatas, Birlas, Bachchans and Infosys’s Nandan Nilekani

Maya paid Rs 12 cr tax in ’06-07 on gifts

       New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati’s contentions that her supporters had given her large amounts of cash and pledged their personal properties out of “love and affection” was validated by the Income Tax Appelate Tribunal (ITAT) in a recent ruling finding nothing wrong in a mass leader like Mayawati receiving “gifts”.
         “These gifts are made out of natural love and affection by the donors thus remains unquestioned and uncontroversial,” the ITAT ruling had said, ridiculing the motive of the I-T assessing officer in questioning the colour of the money. The Dalit leader had paid more than Rs 12 crore in the previous year on income coming from other sources, such as gifts. Though the quantum of gifts she declared before the I-T department in previous years was negligible, in 2003-04, she even claimed standard deduction on them.
   The wealth creation of the Dalit czarina in the account books took a gigantic proportion after the CBI started breathing down her neck in the disproportionate assets case, asking her to explain the yawning gulf between her known sources of income and her wealth.
   The CBI, during its investigation against the Bahujan Samaj Party chief a few years ago, had found more than 70 properties and over 300 donations valued at Rs 13 crore in her name and in the names of her family members. Subsquently, the agency froze over 50 bank accounts having more than Rs 7 crore in them.
   After the law relating to gifts from a non-relative was amended in 2004 where a gift of more than Rs 50,000 from a non-relative in one year could be considered as income of the assessee, Mayawati started filing returns showing gifts as her income and paid taxes on them, sources said.
   Surprised by the manner in which the ITAT had legitimized her gifts and the uproar it generated from a cross-section of the society, the government has said it would appeal against the tribunal judgment in the Delhi High Court and seek a reversal of the order as otherwise it will set a precedent.