New facts are emerging on the ipl front every day the menace seems to be much deeper and wider. The Government of India should immediately conduct comprehensive probe into the affairs of the Indian Premier League (IPL).The nation has to know why the commercial venture was not taxed over the last two years. Inquiry should also be held under the Prevention of Corruption Act against the former Union Minister, Shashi Tharoor, who too has sought a probe into charges against him.

Resignation of Mr. Tharoor cannot be treated as the end of the matter and an inquiry is also needed since for the first time a Minister had been charged with using the office for personal benefit, if not directly for someone close to him.

The IPL  is in its third year and there has been no income tax on its phenomenal earnings. why the income tax department had not investigated issues like why the IPL had not filed tax returns for two years and why it was exempted of entertainment tax. It is quite shameless that people are being deprived of revenue. Crores of revenue to be collected as taxes, have been foregone. There was an urgent need to investigate where the money was coming from and who were handling it.

Unaccounted funds were coming from abroad through the Mauritius route and tax havens.The entire matter, besides the source of funding including money through the Mauritius route, needed to be investigated, In fact there should be  a review of the Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty with that country.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had on many occasions said that India cannot afford crony capitalism,  the IPL was a “scandalous expression of crony capitalism.”

Tharoor’s stated  that his effort was to help Kerala.Instead of IPL, the former Union Minister should have been worried about Below Poverty Line people in the State who were facing hardship on account of lower allocation of food grain from the Centre.

IPL was “scandalous” because a vast majority of people were suffering economic hardships whereas “the base price of one IPL team was Rs 15,000 crore and there are ten teams.

Indian Premier League (IPL) as become ‘big business enterprise’. Everybody should know about the ownership pattern of franchisees. It should be made more transparent to the public. Everything needs to come out,”

Now some changes can take place but this cannot be treated as private matter of BCCI or IPL. The matter cannot be closed. There is need for investigation, The IPL is the child of BCCI there fore the probe should be improved all the affairs concerning the BCCI.

Many state governments, including Maharashtra, were not levying tax saying it was a sporting event. But,  It is more of an entertainment event.

FOR MORE READING. .

• THE IPL AND THE LARGER MENACE – Prof.K.Nageshwar.
• IPL MUDDLE: SACK SHASHI AND SHAKE-UP THE SYSTEM – Prasenjit Bose