Lord Paul hits back; says critics 'caught pants down'

H S Rao
London, Mar 12 (PTI) Pilloried by the Opposition
Conservative Party and the media supporting it, Lord Swraj
Paul has hit back at his critics saying that "they have been
caught with their pants down."
The 78-year-old NRI industrialist announced earlier this
week that he had been cleared by the police of allegations
that he had wrongly claimed Parliamentary expenses and that he
had decided to give up his non-domicile status which means
that he will have to pay taxes in this country on his overseas
expenses also.
As left-wing political weekly New Statesman put it, Paul
had in recent weeks become the focus of intense political and
media scrutiny and dragged into the row over tax status of
Conservative Party's Deputy Chairman Lord Michael Ashcroft,
who is alleged to have avoided paying millions in tax in
recent years by declaring himself to be a non-domicile.
Conservatives and their "apologists in the press" as the
weekly put it had been asking why there should be focus on
Ashcroft's non-domicile status when Paul had a similar status.
By deciding that he was giving it up he appears to have taken
the wind out the sails of his critics.

Asked by the New Statesman how much additional tax he
would have to pay by ending his non-domicile status, Paul told
the magazine: "Definitely not millions of pounds, or hundreds
of thousands."
One source suggests his tax bill might be as low as
10,000 pounds, the weekly said, adding the Liberal Democrats
have alleged that Ashcroft has avoided paying 127 million
pounds in tax over the past decade.
When asked if he had any aspiration to join a future
Labour government after the next elections due before middle
of June, Paul, who is regarded as a friend of Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, replied: "I have no interest in being a
minister."
"I'm too old for it anyway." PTI HSR
SKT