Nizam’s kin urge Centre to settle Jewellery Trust issue

The kin of VII Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan have requested Union Finance Minister to direct the officials concerned to look into the litigation over income tax and wealth tax pertaining to the Nizam Jewellery Trust towards one-time resolution and settlement to end the dispute running for the last 26 years. In a letter addressed to the Union Finance Minister recently, Najaf Ali Khan, one of the grandsons of the VII Nizam, said the dispute was dragging on since 1995 and most of the beneficiaries of the trust have become senior citizens and having health and financial issues. Some of the beneficiaries have expired too during the last 26 years, he noted. Explaining the dispute, Mr. Najaf Ali Khan said it was about income tax arrears and refunds. According to records, the trust beneficiaries were liable to receive a refund along with lien amount of about ₹ 14 crore but the Income Tax Department had been contending that about ₹ 8.54 crore tax was due from the beneficiaries.He stated that the VII Nizam had created various Trusts for the benefit of his family members and one of them was the Nizam Jewellery Trust, which was being overseen having powers to sell the jewellery. After a prolonged litigation and with the intervention of the Supreme Court, the Central Government had agreed to purchase the jewellery for an amount of ₹206 crore in January 1995. Then, the Trustees had initiated action for the sale of jewellery of the Trust by passing necessary resolutions. The corpus was distributed among about 114 Nizam’s family members. As on date, 39 of them had expired, Mr. Najaf Ali Khan stated.