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Several candidates in Punjab and Uttarakhand who are contesting the forthcoming assembly elections have declared that they have never filed income tax returns. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
The Punjab Election Watch, which has analysed the list of candidates for the forthcoming assembly elections, has found that a total of 92 candidates (23 percent) out of 408 candidates have declared that they have never filed income tax returns.
PEW has also revealed that Sukbhir Singh Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal Punjab has the highest annual income of Rs 4.58 crore. He is followed by Parkash Singh Badal again from SAD, with an annual income of Rs 2 crore.
Rana Gurjit Singh from the Indian National Congress is close behind with an income of Rs 1.59 crore. Some of the other crorepatis include INC's Kewal Singh Dhillon with 1.53 crore and SAD's Deep Malhotra with 1.10 crore, as per their last filed income tax returns.
Out of the 92 candidates, who have never filed IT returns, INC has 15, SAD has 11, PPP has 20 and BSP has 27. The top three candidates with maximum assets who have never filed their IT returns are Karan Kaur of INC, contesting from Muktsar, with total assets of Rs 128 crore, followed by
Ramanjit Singh Sikki of INC contesting from Khadoor Sahib and Gurpartap Singh Wadala of SAD contesting from Nakodar have total assets worth Rs 20.12 crore and Rs 13.71 crore respectively.
47 (12 percent) candidates do not have a PAN number of which 5 are from INC, 5 from SAD, 7 from PPP and 18 from Bahujan Samaj Party. The top three candidates with maximum assets, but have not declared their PAN card details, are Gurpartap Singh Wadala of SAD contesting from Nakodar with total assets of Rs 13.71 crore, followed by Brahm Mohindra of INC contesting from Patiala Rural and Sikander Singh an independent candidate contesting from Rampura Phul have total assets of Rs 6.49 crore.
In Uttarakhand, 99 (36 percent) candidates out of the 278 candidates analysed have declared that they have never filed ITR. From the BSP, 31 (44 percent) out of 70 candidates, UKD (P) 24 (55 percent) out of 44 candidates, BJP 20 (29 percent) out of 70 candidates and INC 10 (14 percent) out of 70 candidates, have declared that they have never filed ITR.
42 out of 278 candidates analysed (15 percent) who are contesting in Uttarakhand 2012 assembly elections have not declared their PAN card details. Out of the 42 candidates who have not declared their PAN details, 6 candidates are crorepatis.
Out of 278 candidates analysed, 99 candidates (36 percent) have declared that they have not filed their ITR. Among them, Shahjad of BSP has the highest assets of approximately 6.52 crore followed by Kaleem of BJP with assets worth around 3.15 crore.