Tax-shy footballers under I-T scanner

KOLKATA, May 30: Taxmen have trained their guns on footballers and the players are scurrying for cover. The Comptroller and Auditor General's office has directed the Income-Tax authorities to draw up a list of Indian footballers who are yet to file their tax returns for financial years 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06.
After receiving CAG's letter in April, the I-T authorities found out that quite a few footballers had failed to file their returns regularly.According to I-T sources, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Mehtab Hossain, Tomba Singh and Dharamjit Singh are all now under the scanner.
Mehraj, Bagan's star defender, paid up Rs 30,000 recently, but the tax officials maintain that he is guilty of not filing his returns regularly from 2000-01. He faces a stiff penalty if he fails to settle his I-T arrears soon.
Mohun Bagan officials confirmed to TOI on Friday that taxmen had visited the club on Tuesday and asked for the photo copies of Mehraj's contract from 2004-05 onwards.
Income-Tax authorities claimed that most players generally show high expenditure to lessen the tax burden. "The few footballers who do file their returns do so in a very amateurish manner. They often claim tax exemption by showing expenditure under certain heads that do not qualify under the rules. If we want, we can nail them anytime, but as most of them are national level players, we usually give them lot of rope," an I-T official said.
However, if a player fails to file his return in successive years he is in for trouble. "We are also checking if they have PAN cards or not," he added.
While many top footballers on the Maidan are now spending sleepless nights , East Bengal defender Debjit Ghosh and JCT custodian Kalyan Choubey are two exceptions. Both work for the Income-Tax and regularly file their returns. And as the assessees and assessors are from the same department, they often get away lightly.