Who goes to attend a meeting with '300 bags'? ED on Mallya
Mumbai, Dec 12: Who goes to attend a meeting with "300 bags", the Enforcement Directorate (ED) asked Vijay Mallya's lawyer in a special court here Wednesday, countering the claim that the liquor baron had left India in March 2016 only to attend an event in Geneva and did not flee the country.
Amit Desai, Mallya's lawyer, had Tuesday told special judge for Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases M S Azmi that his client did not leave the country secretly as claimed by the ED.
"There was no secret departure. He left the country to attend a planned meeting (of World Motor Sport in Geneva, Switzerland))," he had said.
However, ED counsel D N Singh countered Desai's claim.
"They don't have anything to show that he left India to attend a meeting.... Who goes to attend a meeting with 300 bags and huge cargo," he said.
Singh made the submission while arguing before the court on the Central agency's plea to declare Mallya a "fugitive" under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA).
The beleaguered business had left India on March 2, 2016 and is now based in Britain. A court in London Monday ordered the extradition of Mallya, wanted in India for alleged financial irregularities.
Responding to another claim of the defence, Singh said the application to declare the former MP a fugitive was filed before the court after all means to bring him back failed to yield any result.
Despite issuance of summonses and three NBWs (non-bailable warrants), Mallya refused to join the probe against him, the ED lawyer said.
The extradition process is a proof enough that he is not willing to return, he said.
"He is fighting not to come to India. Mallya claimed that he doesn't want to return as the case was 'politically motivated.
"He complained the condition in the jail, where he is supposed to be kept, is bad. A video of prison was sent and UK court (which ordered his extradition) was satisfied with the same," he said.
The ED counsel also countered Desai's claim that FEOA was "draconian".
It is not a "draconian" law but just an Act to bring back a person to India to join probe and face trial for offences listed under it, Singh said.
Singh said Mallya's lawyers, during their arguments and replies in the court on the ED application, have not said anything about his return to India.
"Neither during their reply or arguments they have said anything. Even now (after the extradition order) he has not made any statement that when he is coming or how he is coming," the ED counsel added.
Mallya, facing charges brought by the CBI and the ED, is wanted in India for alleged fraud and money laundering amounting to an estimated Rs 9,000 crore.
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
