Mumbai: Stamp officials pull up BCCI for evasion worth many crores

Notices have also been sent to Indiawin Sports Private Limited which controls Mumbai IndiansThe Board of Control for Cricket in India has come under the state stamp authoritys scanner for allegedly evading stamp duty worth crores to the exchequer over several years The matter pertains to agreements the board has entered with various sponsors for which they are supposed to pay a stipulated stamp duty on the agreement valueNotices have also been sent to Indiawin Sports Private Limited which controls the Indian Premier League franchise Mumbai Indians An Indiawin Sports spokesperson told midday that the company has submitted its response to the stamp authorities The matter is currently under review with the authorities and hence we cannot offer any further comment at this moment said the spokespersonNumerous attempts to reach BCCI officials via their public relations firm did not yield any response However a senior board official on condition of anonymity said the BCCI top brass is aware of the issue The senior officebearers are busy with the IPL he saidAny agreement entered into in the state of Maharashtra attracts stamp duty which if not paid empowers stamp officials to recover 01 to 05 per cent of the consideration value towards stamp duty depending on the agreementdocument There will also be a penalty of 2 per cent per month from the date of execution of the agreement for nonpayment or deficit payment of dutyOfficial saysThe officer said Once we are allowed scrutiny of all agreements we will get a clear picture as to if the agreement was signed in Mumbai to ascertain any stamp duty payment evasionSources in the department told midday that the BCCI had till recently maintained that it is not a public body and hence the provisions of the Maharashtra Stamps Act 1958 do not apply to itThe stamp authority will scrutinise the boards agreements for the current financial year before going into previous yearsAccording to revenue department sources the most recent notice to the BCCI was sent in the first week of April by which time the board had come under the Committee of Administrators appointed by the Supreme CourtSoon after receiving the notice a BCCI representative visited the General Stamp Office and agreed to cooperate with them The first case that will be taken up is an agreement for which the stamp authorities have after adjudication of a document found that R5 crore duty towards stamp duty evasionSuresh Jadhav Additional Controller of Stamps General Stamp Office Mumbai said We have already issued notices to the concerned sponsorsteam owners either of whom as per the sponsorship agreement were liable to pay the stamp duty We have asked them to submit their say in writing and have asked them to come for a hearing to clarify their stand before our competent authority within a stipulated time period and get their documents adjudicated for ascertaining the exact stamp duty The notices were issued before the start of IPL matchesFull cooperations assuredJadhav added that a senior BCCI official visited him and assured full cooperationThey also submitted a document for adjudication and the stamp duty calculated on the same was over Rs 5 crore which the BCCI has now agreed to pay said Jadhav BCCI has requested time till the final IPL matches get over by this weekend and from next week two of our officers from the Collector of StampsEnforcement 1 will visit the BCCI office daily and will examine all relevant documents agreements Officers will list the nature of documentinstrument consideration value declared clause who is to bear the stamp duty calculate stamp duty and levy penalty if applicable and submit the same to BCCI officials who will get the payment done and will regularise the documents We will begin our scrutiny for the financial year 201617 and will then go for earlier periodsSenior bureaucrats attached to the General Stamp Office told midday that the list of sponsors who have entered into agreements with Indiawin Sports Private Limited include a housing finance company a developer an international airline and a beverages giantThe sponsorship agreements whose consideration vary from Rs 4 crore to Rs 23 crore apart from sponsoring matches also involves endorsements of cricket players for specific promotional activities including commercial shoots for the sponsoring products or programme or event with the intent to make profits or business out of it explained an officerFour out of 10 sponsorship agreements under scanner were executed in the months of January and March 2017 with sponsorship periods ranging from 3 years to 6 months According to stamp officials stamp duty on these four agreements as per calculation comes to Rs 29 lakhOf the remaining six agreements executed between 2015 and 2016 for sponsorship ranging from two to four years no stamp duty has been paid for two agreements in some cases and a lower duty paid in othersAs per our calculation in this Indianwin Sportss case we have come across a total amount of Rs 57 lakh due to the exchequer of which Rs 876 lakh has been paid We are yet to collect Rs 4895 lakh due to the exchequer and a penalty of Rs 1221 lakh said an official