Special Court slaps nine-year jail term and Rs 6 billion cash penalty against former IRD Chief Chudamani Sharma

Sharma and two other TSC officials waived taxes amounting to Rs 10.2 billion payable by various big business firms in 2015

KATHMANDU, June 21: The Special Court on Tuesday slapped a nine-year jail sentence to former chief of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD), Chudamani Sharma – the mastermind of the country’s multi-billion rupee corruption cases. Sharma has been convicted of accepting kickbacks to settle tax arrears while he was with the Tax Settlement Commission.

The Special Court has also asked the authority concerned to recover the misappropriated amount and cash penalty totaling Rs 6 billion from Sharma. This is the largest amount that the judicial body has ever fixed against the accused in corruption scams.

A joint bench of Special Court Chairman Shreekant Poudel and judges Yamuna Bhattarai and Shaligram Koirala fixed the punishments against Sharma along with Chairman the Tax Settlement Commission (TSC) Lumba Dhwaj Mahat and member Umesh Dhakal. While Mahat has been given a jail term of nine years and one month, Dhakal has been slapped with nine years of imprisonment.

Earlier on June 1, the Special Court convicted three former officials of the TSC, including Sharma, on corruption in a tax evasion case. Sharma also served as a member-secretary of the TSC.

Sharma, Mahat and Dhakal, have been proven guilty in the case of abusing their authority in waiving taxes amounting to Rs 10.2 billion payable by various big business firms. The government had mandated the accused to collect billions from those firms and various individuals. The officials however had given tax rebates improperly when they were in the official positions in 2015.

Apart from the tax waiver case, Sharma, along with his wife Kalpana Uprety Sharma, were also accused of accumulating unexplained property worth Rs 42.95 million. The court however gave a clean chit to Sharma and his wife in the case of illegally amassing property.

The biggest ever corruption case prosecuted in the country first landed at the court in July 2017. Sharma was arrested from his office the same year after numerous complaints registered against him on charge of misusing millions of properties abusing his authority. On November 29 of the same year, Sharma was released after depositing a bail of Rs 10 million sought by the Special Court.

Another corruption case was filed against the suspended IRD Chief Sharma, at the Special Court in January, 2018. The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) filed the case against Sharma for the second time stating that Sharma’s property, amounting to Rs 42.95 million, was disproportionate to his legal income.