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Kerala probes luxury tax evasion by marriage halls

Published

9 years ago

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Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government’s commercial taxes department has crated special squads to curb evasion of luxury tax by marriage halls in the state, an official said on Thursday.

Tax officials are expecting to rake in huge revenue through realisation of penalties from marriage halls that under-reported income from rent.

Interestingly, as a first step, the tax officials have begun collecting details of marriages registered with local bodies in the state.

A senior tax official, on the condition of anonymity, told that special squads were taking down details of all marriages solemnised in the past three years in Kerala.

“As per the law, all marriages, irrespective of religion of spouses involved or wherever it is held, have to be registered with the local bodies like municipal corporation, municipality and gram panchayats.

“This makes our job easy, as marriage certificates contain all relevant details as to when and where the marriages were held. These details will be counter-checked against returns filed by marriage halls. If there is a discrepancy, a penalty will be levied on the erring marriage hall,” said the official.

A few years ago, the state government levied luxury tax on marriage halls in a bid to mobilise more revenue.

Three slabs of tax rates (10, 15 and 20 percent) are levied at present. Marriage halls charging a rent of over Rs.20,000 come under the 20 per cent tax bracket.

“We expect to plug all leaks (in revenue) and bring out under-declared rents,” the official said.

The commercial tax department expects to rake in close to Rs.30 crore by way of penalty.

Incidentally, the average rent of a marriage hall in big cities of Kerala now exceeds Rs.1 lakh per day.

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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story

Published

2 years ago

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May 5, 2022

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The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.

In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).

The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.

The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.

Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.

In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.

The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.

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