CWG OC paid Hooper's Rs 2cr tax tab

Michael Hooper, CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation who has been in Delhi for the past several years, has been living it up royally even as the Games preparations were floundering.
According to documents available with TOI, the Organising Committee, in a bizarre decision on November 1, 2007, decided to take care of all the income tax liabilities of Hooper during his stay in India. Ordinary citizens may pay their own income tax but not Hooper, OC secretary general Lalit Bhanot decided without government consent or any formal collective deliberation.

So for 2007-08 and 2008-09 financial years, Indian tax payers paid almost Rs 2 crore on behalf of Hooper as tax liabilities to the government. Hooper was being paid salary in London by the Commonwealth Games Federation.

Not just that. For several months after he landed in India, Hooper stayed at a sprawling farmhouse which had a monthly rental of over Rs 12 lakh.

But since December 1, 2008, Hooper shifted to a cheaper accommodation. A farmhouse belonging to one Mukesh Khanna was hired at Rs 4.50 lakh a month.

At his house, Hooper has six employees with a total monthly salary of Rs 37,375, according to OC documents.