INDIA SUMMARIZED

According to her election returns filed before contesting the 2009 poll, she said she had paid Rs 5.58 lakh as income tax for assessment year 2008-09 and Rs 32,512 in wealth tax. Reuters  What’s really there in Sonia's tax returns? Let’s be clear: even if Sonia Gandhi were to put her latest income-tax returns in the public domain – which she has currently declined against an RTI request – nothing much will come to light. Three reasons why. One, her main sources of official income are likely to come from being a cabinet-ranked head of the National Advisory Council (NAC), her salary and income as an MP, including attendance fees, and miscellaneous income from fixed deposits, etc. Two, the assets disclosed by her to the Election Commission in the 2009 Lok Sabha poll was just around Rs 1.38 crore. These assets are incapable of generating very high incomes – unless one sells some of the landed properties held in her name in Italy and India. Three, it is highly unlikely that he...