MANY potential contenders for the Liberal nomination in the reconstituted federal riding of Surrey-Newton had been waiting for the judgment in the income tax case involving former MP Sukh Dhaliwal and his wife Roni.

This week, the Dhaliwals pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the Income Tax Act by not filing tax returns for their company Genco Consultants Inc. Dhaliwal was president and director, while his wife was secretary.

Dhaliwal, who was facing six charges, on Tuesday pleaded guilty in the B.C. Provincial Court in Surrey to three charges and paid a total fine of $3,000 on Tuesday.

His wife, who was facing 14 charges, on Monday pleaded guilty to five charges and paid a total fine of $5,000 on Monday.

Both received the minimum fine of $1,000 for each charge. The maximum penalty for this offence is $25,000 and a year in jail.

It was alleged that Dhaliwal failed to file a completed corporate income tax return on Form T2 for 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. Dhaliwal failed to file tax returns within the required 120 days after being served a notice of requirement in August 2011. Charges were sworn in October 2012.

Dhaliwal’s lawyer said that the returns were not filed because of a number of circumstances and that it was a complicated and regretful situation.

Since there are no criminal charges, Dhaliwal can rest easy.

DHALIWAL, as I noted in my column Rattan’s Rumble last week, was a popular MP who went out of the way to help his constituents but got knocked out by Jinny Sims thanks to the NDP wave in 2011.

On the other hand, if Dhaliwal is not allowed to run for some reason or the other, at least two of the names of contenders that crop up are those of guys who are not really hot candidates and may lose to Sims. Negative aspects of their past will surely be brought up by the media.

HOWEVER, Trudeau faces a veritable SOUTH ASIAN dilemma in another riding that I will be writing about in my column.

So stay tuned!

BY RATTAN MALL