There are 16 MLAs who have total assets in crores and possess PAN card but don't file ITRs in Madhya Pradesh.

Bhopal: A report of Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) claimed that in spite of having incomes in cores, MPs and MLAs in Madhya Pradesh neither possess PAN card nor do they file Income Tax Returns. 

The crorepati MLAs who haven’t offered details of PAN card include Sunita Patel an MLA from Gadarwara, Narsinghpur and Umakant Sharma, MLA from Sironj, Vidisha respectively. Sharma is the brother of former minister Laxmikant Sharma who is an accused in Vyapam scam case. 

MPs who have offered details of PAN card in their election affidavits but not filed income tax returns include BJP MP Bodh Singh Bhagat from Balaghat constituency, who has assets more than Rs 2 crore. Both BJP’s Shahdol MP Gyan Singh and BJP’s Rewa MP Janardan Mishra who have assets well over a crore have also not filed their income tax returns.

There are 16 MLAs who have total assets in crores and possess PAN card but don't file ITRs. These include Sunita Patel, Gadarwara MLA whose assets are well beyond Rs 6 crores and she also does not have PAN card. Others in the list include – BJP’s Barwani MLA Prem Singh who has assets of over Rs 5 crore, BJP’s Guna MLA Gopilal Jatav whose assets are over Rs 3 crore and Congress’ Kotama MLA Sunil Kumar and his partyman Brajendra Singh Yadav, an MLA from Mungaoli who have assets over Rs 2 crore.

Among those who don’t file ITR also include MLA Omkar Singh Markam from Dindori, a cabinet minister of Kamal Nath government. MLA Markam holds portfolios of Tribal Welfare and Nomadic Tribes Welfare and has assets in excess of Rs 1.24 crore.

The anomalies were reported by the ADR in a letter addressed to the chief Income Tax Commissioner Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, RK Paliwal, seeking action. 

In the letter, the ADR had maintained the several elected representatives who haven’t offered details of PAN card in their election affidavits and also have shown that they don’t file ITRs despite having huge incomes.

The report mentioned that the list of these public representatives includes those who have won a second and third time, and their assets have shown stupendous growth. These candidates either leave PAN card column empty or simply write Not Applicable, claimed the election watchdog. 

Referring to a Supreme Court September 13, 2013 verdict in which the apex court has pronounced that candidature of any public representative could be quashed over wrong or partial information of financial transactions given in election affidavit, the ADR has urged the Income Tax department to probe into the shared information.