Goa delays ED land probe 7 Jun 2008, 0421 hrs IST,Joaquim Fernandes,TNN PANAJI: The Goa government's delay in furnishing details of major illegal purchases of land by foreigners in Goa is hampering investigations by the Enforcement Directorate, Mumbai. Repeated requests by the ED to the Goa government have not yielded any details.
A senior ED official from Mumbai told TOI that the directorate has come across reports that foreigners have purchased properties in excess of 100 acres in Goa but the Goa government is not co-operating in furnishing details of such purchases despite several reminders in the last one year. "Maybe they are checking," he said. The ED official said the Goa government had forwarded about 400 cases of violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act in Goa to the Reserve Bank of India. Of these, the RBI forwarded 74 cases to the ED. There are prima facie violations in these cases but most are minor cases relating to flats and apartments. "We are concentrating on the big cases of high value purchases," the official said. The only major case in this batch is that of a Russian company called True Axis, which purchased about 20,000 square metres of agriculture/forest land in Morjim. Foreigners cannot purchase agricultural/forest land in India. The value of the property at the time of purchase was about Rs four crore, which will now have increased, he said. True Axis also purchased the property with money received into their personal account, which is again illegal according to RBI rules. The company has Indian directors but these are dummies, the official said. After recording their statement, the ED investigating officer issued a show cause notice to the Russian company about a week ago asking why the property should not be confiscated. He has already submitted his report to the Adjudicating Authority, who is either the Special Director or the Deputy Director in the ED. True Axis has not replied to the notice yet. The ED can impose monetary penalty on the company and its directors and can also confiscate the land, the official revealed. Other cases under probe pertain to companies set up by other foreign nationalities, including Russians, Ukrainians and Israelis. Investigations in about 12 cases have been completed and show cause notices have been sent to about seven companies. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Goa/Goa_delays_ED_land_probe/articles how/3108106.cms ~(^^)~ Avelino
