Officials say that SIT was reportedly focusing on why the investigation stalled despite GST intelligence flagging the wire transfer of ₹126 crore to a foreign entity through banking channels in 2025, which automatically triggered a service tax obligation of ₹22.68 crore to the State exchequer. File
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Kerala Finance Department’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has expedited its enquiry into the suspected Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion on foreign remittances made by a private firm ostensibly to secure the presence of the 2021 FIFA World Cup-winning Argentine football team and its iconic captain Lionel Messi for an exhibition match in Kochi in 2025.
Officials said the investigation will likely lay the legal groundwork for a sweeping anti-corruption enquiry into the high-profile plan that turned into a fiasco amid a storm of hype and despite the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government’s active backing.
According to government officials privy to the enquiry ordered by Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, the SIT, headed by GST Deputy Commissioner C Brijesh, is poised to record statements from the tax enforcers who initially flagged suspected levy dodging in 2025.
They said the SIT was reportedly focusing on why the investigation stalled despite GST intelligence flagging the wire transfer of ₹126 crores to a foreign entity through banking channels in 2025, which automatically triggered a service tax obligation of ₹22.68 crore to the State exchequer. The tax enforcers had also issued several notices to the firm, to no avail under the LDF government.
Officials said the sponsoring firm, under renewed government scrutiny, belatedly responded to the GST notices in early August. They said the company took the legal defence that it owed no service tax since the event never took place.
They said the government might refer the finding that the sponsoring firm registered itself as a company, allegedly with paltry capital, just weeks before approaching the LDF government with the high-profile scheme, to the Registrar of Companies and the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), based on a legal opinion predicated on the SIT’s findings.
The ongoing multi-department probe, officials said, also covered whether the LDF government had wrapped up the agreement with the sponsor without open tendering, soliciting expressions of interest from other potential bidders, clearance from the Law and Finance Departments, cabinet concurrence and proper market value assessment to determine whether the firm had the budgetary capacity to execute the high-value commercial enterprise.
If the multi-department enquiry reveals cognisable offences, including those with penal consequences under the GST Act and infringement of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the UDF government, officials said, would have the latitude to refer the findings to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau for further investigation.
They said the banking data on outward remittances made by the sponsor could also trigger investigations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), based on the SIT’s findings or the registration of a vigilance case, if at all.
Published – August 16, 2026 12:49 pm IST
