New Delhi: Union minister for InformationTechnology Rajeev Chandrasekhar alleged that Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter T Veena had received Rs 1.72 crore in monthly payments from the private entity Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL) over a period of three years.

Chandrasekhar questioned the basis on which Veena has been allegedly receiving the aforesaid amounts and called the purported transactions 'Veena service tax'.

“On the occasion when we are observing the anniversary of the Quit India movement, the daughter of Kerala’s communist chief minister is collecting money from different firms as if she had imposed a new kind oftax named ‘Veena service tax’," ridiculed Chandrasekhar.

The Union minister alleged that many companies had invested funds illegally in the firm owned by her.

“The Left parties had played a crucial role during the UPA regime during the 2004-2009 period. It was at the time that major corruption scams like the 2G spectrum scandal and coalgate were exposed. Why are companies such as CMRL that have nothing to do with the software or technology business, investing funds in Veena Vijayan’s company? The Left parties and the Congress that have formed the Opposition INDIA front must answer this,” Chandrasekhar said.

The Delhi bench of the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board had ruled recently that the CMRL had paid the money to Veena because of her relation to a prominent person. Veena and Exalogic, the company owned by her, had signed an agreement with the CMRL to provide it with IT, marketing consultancy, and software services. But, in fact, none of these services were provided to the company. The managing director of the CMRL, SN Sasidharan Kartha, had given a statement to the Income Tax department stating that his company had made monthly payments to Veena as provided for in the agreement.

During the hearing by the bench, the Income Tax department had argued that Veena and the Exalogic company had received a cumulative payment of Rs 1.72 crore during 2017-20 and that these transactions were illegal, the Union Minister said.

The Delhi bench of the Settlement Board, consisting of Amrapalli Das, Rameshwar Singh, and M. Jagadeesh Babu, had made it clear that the Income Tax department, by furnishing incontrovertible evidence, had proved that the payments were made for services that were not provided, he said.