I-T to HC: Attached Jaya’s Poes Garden house to recover dues

The submission was made by the I-T department after a division bench of Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice Anita Sumanth directed them to appraise it of Jayalalithaa’s tax dues and the status of recovery on a plea moved by Traffic K R Ramaswamy challenging the conversion of her Poes Garden residence into a memorial.

Based on this, the I-T submitted that from 1990-91 to 2011-12 and arrears under Wealth Tax including interest up to December 31, 2018, Jayalalithaa owed Rs 10.12 crore and arrears under I-T worked out to Rs 6.62 crore.

Also, noting that while a recovery of Rs 5.65 crores has been made, the assessee has filed return for assessment year 2016-17 declaring an income of Rs 1.27 crore and paid advance tax of Rs 31.30 lakh and TDS of Rs 15.08 lakh. But for the assessment year 2017-18 no return was filed by the legal heir of Jayalalithaa. Another annexure revealed the attachment of four properties including her Poes Garden residence and a property at Hyderabad.

However, the bench on recording the submission granted I-T further time as sought for to file another affidavit giving the position of assessments, appeals if any and recovery of outstanding arrears of tax assessed and steps taken for recovery of the same.

The bench also sought for clarity on the department’s stand in recovery of such tax arrears and whether for those reasons, they have any objection to the relief claimed for creating a memorial in such property under attachment of the department.

Advocate General Vijay Narayan also sought two weeks’ time to place on record as to who should be impleaded on behalf of Jayalalithaa’s estate. The bench then posted the case to February 7 for further hearing.