Min ignored taxes secretary’s proposal
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Causing further embarrassment to excise minister K. Babu in the bar bribery case, it has come to light that former taxes secretary had stated to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) that a meeting chaired by the minister had decided to fix the bar licence fee for 2103 at Rs 23 lakh, despite a proposal to hike the fee to Rs 25 lakh.
According to sources, the then taxes secretary K. Ajith had stated that excise commissioner Anil Xavier had recommended that the bar licence fee should be hiked to Rs 25 lakh from Rs 22 lakh. But the after discussion by the excise minister with officials it was decided to fix the fee at Rs 23 lakh.
Meanwhile, K. Babu said in his statement to the vigilance during the quick verification that though representatives of bar owners had demanded that the bar licence fee should be reduced to '18 lakh, he had insisted that the licence fee could not be reduced at any cost.
The bar owners made the demand at during the pre-budget meeting in 2013 after they were informed of excise commissioner’s proposal to hike the licence fee.
It may be recalled that Kerala Bar Hotels’ Association working president Biju Ramesh had alleged that Babu took bribe offering to reduce the bar licence fee.
Mr. Babu also said in the statement to vigilance that he did not speak to the bar owners after the officials who took part in pre-budget meeting dispersed.
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