Off the field activities of Indian Cricket Stars
The BCCI’s management and the players are making their mark in the lobbies of courts and India’s Central Excise Department these days. Yuvraj Singh, a prolific middle order batsman of India has been served a tax notice by the Central Excise Department of India while the former skipper Saurav Ganguly has been asked by the Supreme Court of India to respond to a petition alleging “bad in law” allocation of land. The honorary Group Captain of Indian Air Force and India’s prodigy in Test and ODI cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, was once reported to be demanding the Indian Government to waive off tax duty on a luxurious Ferrari being gifted to him.
Saurav Ganguly, Former Indian skipper, has been asked by the Supreme Court of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 to answer to a plead alleging that the West Bengal state government has given the cricketer a land worth US$9.69 million for only $136,000 approximately to build a school there.
Earlier the petition was filed with the Calcutta High Court but the court proclaimed a verdict in favour of Ganguly approving the allocation of land. A society called “Humanity” challenged Calcutta High Court’s orders in the Supreme Court by filing an appeal against the approval of allocation. Humanity’s petition was heard by the Supreme Court on Monday, 13th of September and Ganguly has been given 28 days to file his reply.
A bench comprising Justices AK Ganguly and GS Singhvi said that most of the corruptions in India occur due to the habit of making exceptions, "a major source of corruption in our country lies in our habit to make exceptions.”
The two-member bench has also asked the urban development department of West http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bengal-c771 government, secretary of the urban development department and the secretary of the law department to file their responses to the appeal within eight weeks.
The society called Humanity has alleged that the allocation of land to Ganguly by the West Bengal government on a rate below market rate is “bad in law” and that the High Court of Calcutta sanctioned the allotment regardless of a number of infringements of the laws for allocation and school affiliations.
Indian government, through an advertisement, had demanded bids from schools and societies to set up a school in Salt Lake City, a satellite township on the outer reaches of Kolkata. In the petition, Humanity has claimed that in response to that ad some 24 applications were submitted from a number of schools, societies and trusts but all of them were ignored by the government accepting Saurav Ganguly’s application.
The petition further claimed that initially Ganguly had taken possession of 75 percent of an acre but as per Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) a minimum of one acre is required to set up a school on it. So the former cricketer purportedly requested the state minister for urban development http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ashok-c46345 Bhattacharya, for more land and the state, without any delay, allotted Ganguly the additional land, the petition claims.
Moreover, the ICSE rules also do not permit one person to be in control of a school, so the Indian cricketer formed a society made up of his family including his wife, father, mother, brother, sister and other relatives, according to the petition.
Coming to Yuvraj, according to Forbes the promising cricketer earns $5.5 million per annum from playing for the IPL and his endorsements. The Central Excise Department assessed the earnings of Yuvraj Singh amounting to Rs 101.5 million - Rs. 85 million as income, Rs.10 million from a TV show while Rs. 6.5 million were earned from promotional activities.
According to the calculations of India’s Central Excise Department Yuvraj has not paid a service tax amounting to Rs. 9.6 million from playing two seasons of the IPL. Another Rs. 2 million tax was assessed by the department for his participation in a television show ‘Dus ka Dum’. These Rs 11.6 million are other than the toothpaste commercials and promotional activities that Yuvraj has been a part of.
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