Piyush Goyal shows how to invest ₹1 lakh and earn ₹30 crore

It appears Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and his wife Seema Goyal invested ₹1 lakh in a company in 2005-06 as its paid-up capital and raked in ₹30 crore over the next 10 years by way of income/profit.

Piyush Goyal, who was also the treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party, resigned from the directorship of Intercon Advisors Pvt Ltd in 2014 and transferred all his shares to his wife.

A return of ₹30,000 or so per share of ₹10, experts say, is unusually high even by Indian standards. What is more, the Goyals, who own the company, did not disclose for the past 10 years how the profit was earned. “This actually makes it the most valued company in recent corporate history,” quipped Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera on Tuesday.

Interestingly, in the years 2007-08, 2008-09, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, Piyush Goyal and family did not even disclose the complete source of earnings of Intercon Advisors Private Limited

The income was attributed to ‘Consultancy Fee’, ‘Short Term Capital Gains’ or ‘Profit on Future and Options’ without giving any details.

The company’s corporate filing reflects that there was no normal business income or activity that had been specifically described.

There are at least 11 companies in which either of the Goyals were or still are directors. And as and when they resigned, they were replaced by the same set of people from three families, Khera claimed on the basis of official documents.

Several of these companies have borrowed several hundred crores from banks and have defaulted in their payment. Some of them like Asis Plywood Ltd applied for insolvency and received protection from the National Company Law Board.

Stressing that there is a pattern in these deals, the Congress spokesman demanded a high level inquiry by a sitting or retired Supreme Court judge. He also demanded that since there are indications that the companies have earned money through dubious means and defrauded banks, the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal must either resign or be dropped from the ministry.

In the meanwhile, the Government and Mr Goyal need to explain the business relationship and common business interests of the four families in the 11 companies, the spokesman said.

Asis Plywood Limited with a loan exposure of ₹458 crore, Asis India Infrastructure Limited with a loan exposure of ₹457 crore and Asis Industries Limited with a loan exposure of ₹285 crore are just three of them.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Smt Seema Goyal (wife), Shri Pradeep Goyal (brother) and Smt Neeru Goyal (brother’s wife) on one hand and Shri Rakesh Aggarwal, Shri Gaurav Aggarwal son of Shri Rakesh Aggarwal, Shri Mukesh Bansal, Shri Amit Bansal son of Shri Mukesh Bansal, Shri Manish Shah and Shri Prashant Shenoy on the other hand are two groups of people, who are or were in charge of these 11 companies, he said, most of them after Piyush Goyal became a Union Minister.

What is even more interesting is that Shirdi Industries Limited, Asis Plywood Limited, Asis India Infrastructure Limited and Asis Industries Limited all have a common email ie bknath@asisindia.com.