Not An Issue In 2013, Why Now? Nirmala Sitharaman On IT Raids

The news and deets about I-T raids on properties of actress Taapsee and filmmaker Anurag Basu are becoming much bigger each day. While the likes of Kangana Ranaut are using Twitter to comment, the supporters of Taapsee and Anurag have denounced the act as BJP’s act to silence the people who question the government.

Amid this frenzy exchange of heated words on social media, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman too left a comment on these I-T raids. Though she did not directly take the names, Nirmala said, “First of all, I am not commenting on any A or B individual. (But) since the names were taken, (I want to say) the very same names were raided in 2013,” she said in an interaction with journalists at IWPC. Nirmala said, ‘It wasn’t an issue in 2013. It’s an issue now’.

Nirmala Sitharaman, when asked to comment on raids, she said, ‘Answer it for the hypocrisy or answer it, saying from then this is happening till now, what’s the matter. In the national interest, do we want to know if there is some evasion happening?’

According to the press release by the Income Tax Department, the evidence related to manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of the production house amongst the film directors and shareholders, having tax implications of about 350 crore rupees has been found. As per the same report, the company officials have not been able to explain the discrepancy of around 300 crore rupees.