News Analysis India

Tag: Income tax raid

  • I-T department detects black income of Rs 300 crore after raids on 2 Rajasthan groups

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has detected unaccounted income totalling Rs 300 crore after it raided two Rajasthan-based groups engaged in the business of electrical goods manufacture and money lending respectively, the CBDT said on Tuesday.

    The raids were carried out on December 22 and about 50 premises of the two unidentified groups located in Jaipur, Mumbai and Haridwar were covered.

    “A preliminary analysis of seized evidence reveals that several entities, engaged in the business of manufacturing switches, wires, LEDs, etc., have been selling such goods which are not recorded in the regular books of account. “they were claiming bogus expenses to reduce taxable income,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.

    Transactions evidencing undisclosed income of more than Rs 150 crore have been detected, said the policy-making body for the Income Tax Department. It claimed that the “key person” of the group has “admitted” Rs 55 crore as undisclosed income and has offered to pay tax on it.

    Analysis of seized documents relating to the other group has shown that most of the loans are given in cash and a relatively high rate of interest has been charged on these loans, the CBDT said.

    “Neither the loans advanced nor the interest income earned thereon, have been disclosed in the returns of income of the persons engaged in this business,” it said.

    Evidence relating to undisclosed income of more than Rs 150 crore has been detected in this group, it said. The department also seized cash and jewellery worth Rs 17 crore from the two groups.

  • IT department detects Rs 100-crore black income after raids on Gujarat group

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has detected Rs 100 crore unaccounted income after it recently raided a Gujarat company engaged in manufacturing of chemicals and in real estate, the CBDT said on Sunday.

    The searches were carried out on November 18 at more than 20 premises located in Vapi, Sarigam (Valsad district), Silvassa and Mumbai.

    “Incriminating evidences in the form of documents, diary notings and digital data showing earning of huge unaccounted income by the group and its investment in assets have been seized,” the CBDT said in a statement.

    “The evidences clearly indicate evasion of taxable income by adopting various modus-operandi such as suppression of production, use of bogus purchase invoices without actual delivery of the goods to inflate purchases, availing of bogus GST credit, claim of bogus commission expenses, etc,” it said.

    The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), that frames policy for the tax department, said that the group received unaccounted money as part of immovable property transactions.

    “All these have resulted into generation of unaccounted cash,” the statement said.

    Documents related to cash transactions and investments in immovable properties and cash loans have also been seized by the taxman, it said, adding 2.5 crore cash and jewellery worth Rs 1 crore was seized during the operation while 16 bank accounts have been frozen, the CBDT said.

    “A preliminary analysis of the documents/evidence unearthed during the search has indicated that estimation of unaccounted income is likely to be more than Rs 100 crore,” the statement said.

  • Rs 70-crore black income detected after IT raids on Karnataka civil construction group: CBDT

    The searches were carried out on October 28 at multiple locations in north Karnataka.

  • IT department detects Rs 130-crore after raids on Punjab-based cycle, student immigration businesses

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department detected undisclosed income of about Rs 130 crore after it recently raided two Punjab-based businesses, one engaged in cycle trade and the other in providing immigration and visa services to students, the CBDT said on Tuesday.

    Searches on the entity engaged in cycle trade were carried out on October 21.

    “The action led to detection of unaccounted income of about Rs 150 crore,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which frames policy for the tax department, said in a statement.

    Unaccounted cash of Rs 2.25 crore and gold worth Rs 2 crore were also seized during these raids, it said.

    “The group has been found to be involved in suppression of income by showing bogus intra-group transactions within group concerns,” the CBDT said, adding that “the group was also found to have been involved in receiving a substantial part of sale consideration in cash and thereby, suppressing the turnover”.

    The “seized documents” reveal suppression of turnover of around Rs 90 crore per annum by a group concern of the cycle business, and “incriminating” documents related to undisclosed sale of scrap were also seized.

    The second group is based in Jalandhar and is engaged in providing immigration and study visa related services to students.

    Raids on this group were carried out on October 18.

    “The searches found that the group used to charge a package, ranging between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh per student, depending on the country where the student wished to pursue education,” the CBDT said.

    “Almost the entire receipts of the group, aggregating to more than Rs 200 crore in the last five years are in cash,” it said.

    It was also found that the bank accounts of the employees were used to receive money, which was subsequently withdrawn in cash, the CBDT added.

    The statement said “profit earned from such receipts were never disclosed in the income tax returns (ITRs) filed.”

    “Only the commission received from foreign universities has been shown as receipts in the ITRs by the members of the group,” it said.

    Unaccounted income of about Rs 40 crore has been detected and Rs 20 lakh cash and jewellery of Rs 33 lakh has been seized, the statement said.

  • I-T raids across multiple cities unearth digital evidence of tax fraud 

    By Express News Service

    BENGALURU:  The Income Tax Department has carried out search and seizure operations on 37 premises spread across multiple cities, including Mumbai, Pune, Noida and Bengaluru.

    “The simultaneous searches were conducted on September 30 on groups/individuals involved in varied businesses such as cable manufacturing, real estate, textile, printing machinery, hotels, logistics etc,” stated an official release from the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

    “During the search operations, several incriminating documents, loose sheets, diaries, emails and other digital evidence have been unearthed, which indicate ownership of a large number of foreign bank accounts and immovable properties, unreported to the I-T Department,” added the release.

    “These groups/individuals utilised the services of a Dubai-based financial service provider to create a dubious and complex web of foreign companies and trusts based in tax havens such as Mauritius, United Arab Emirates (UAE), British Virgin Islands (BVI), Gibraltar etc. to hold their unaccounted assets,” the MoF added.

    “The credits in the bank accounts of these groups and individuals maintained by the Dubai-based financial service provider exceed $100 million (about Rs 750 crore) accumulated over a decade and were found to be parked in bank accounts in Switzerland, UAE, Malaysia and several other countries. Evidence gathered during the search operation reveals that the undisclosed funds parked abroad have been used by these groups for acquiring immovable properties in several countries such as the UK, Portugal, UAE etc, in the name of defunct companies incorporated abroad, with funds layered through foreign bank accounts, for meeting the personal expenses of the promoters and their family members abroad and routing back funds in their Indian entities,” the official statement added.

    The MoF further stated, “Evidence related to bogus payments to suppliers for generating cash, cash expenditure, hawala transactions, over-invoicing has also been gathered. Unaccounted cash and jewellery to the tune of over Rs 2 crore have been seized from the residential and business premises. More than 50 bank lockers have been kept under restraint.” 

  • IT dept officials at premises linked to actor Sonu Sood in Mumbai

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Income Tax Department officials descended on the premises linked to actor Sonu Sood in Mumbai and some other places on Wednesday in connection with an alleged tax evasion probe, official sources.

    They said the action is being carried out in at least half a dozen locations in the metropolitan city and Lucknow.

    It was not immediately clear if the action was being undertaken at Sood’s residence also.

    A real estate deal is under the scanner of the department, they said.

    The actor grabbed the national spotlight for helping migrants reach their home states during the nationwide lockdown clamped last year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The Delhi government, led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, had recently declared that 48-year-old Sood will be the brand ambassador of the Aam Aadmi Party government’s ‘Desh ka mentors’ programme under which students will be guided in making their career choices.

  • Probing ‘unaccounted transactions’ of Rs 200 crore, says CBDT after raids on Bharat Samachar and linked businesses

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The CBDT on Saturday claimed to have seized documents and digital records that indicate “unaccounted” transactions of about Rs 200 crore after it raided Lucknow-based Hindi news channel Bharat Samachar and its linked businesses early this week.

    The searches were carried out on July 22 at Lucknow, Basti, Varanasi, Jaunpur and Kolkata and at the residential premises of Bharat Samachar Editor-in-chief Brajesh Misra, state head Virendra Singh, BJP MLA from Uttar Pradesh’s Harraiya (Basti district) assembly seat Ajay Singh and some others.

    The CBDT did not identify the group in the statement and said that apart from news media, the group deals in mining, hospitality, liquor and real estate.

    Officials identified it to be the case linked to the raids carried out against Bharat Samachar.

    “Cash of more than Rs 3 crore has been seized and 16 lockers have been placed under restraint.”

    “Documents including incriminating digital evidence indicating nearly Rs 200 crore of unaccounted transactions have been seized,” the CBDT claimed, adding the probe in the case is continuing.

    After the raids, Misra said on his official Twitter handle that they are tax-compliant citizens and that they have been paying due taxes for the last two decades.

    He added that they have been fighting for the public through their journalistic work and the channel had become “the voice of the poor” when the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country this year.

    The statement claimed that evidence found during searches “establishes” that the business group has been earning huge outside-the-books income through mining, processing and sales in liquor, flour business, real estate, etc.

    “Unaccounted income emanating out of these transactions has been found exceeding Rs 90 crore as per preliminary estimates.

    This income has been brought back into the books through a network of shell companies and other bogus entities without paying any taxes, thereby creating a charade that the money has been accounted for,” it alleged.

    During the searches, more than 15 companies incorporated at Kolkata and other places were found to be “non-existent.”

    “Share premia of over Rs 30 crore were collected by these shell companies through other similar entities or through individuals of no means,” the CBDT said, alleging that there was “no economic rationale” for any such premium.

    It said the raids “established that individuals as well as shell entities were used by the group to launder huge funds amounting to more than Rs 40 crore, showing them as loans obtained by media companies.”

    “Taxation profiling of such shell entities who have provided ‘loans’ indicates that they neither possess the financial ability nor had any economic rationale for advancing such ‘loans’,” it claimed.

    It said that “these persons and entities were found to be closely related to the final beneficiaries.”

    One of these persons had provided loans of more than Rs 1 crore to media entities and was himself not only unlettered but also of very meagre financial means, the statement said.

    “Taxation profiling of each individual and entity indicated that either no returns were filed or very meagre taxes had been paid which were not at all commensurate with the huge amount of loans and premia running into crores,” it said.

    The CBDT said it was found that a “paper company” did not have any business, the address mentioned was false and it had no employees.

    “Yet it had been paid more than Rs 4 crore of share premium by another bogus concern. Similar modus operandi was also followed in having so-called ‘trade payables’ in the books of the main entities of these businesses through such dubious concerns with unaccounted sources of funds,” it claimed.

    These so-called ‘payables’ alone amount to more than Rs 50 crore, it alleged.

    The CBDT said that one of the branches of the group has “voluntarily disclosed” an income of Rs 20 crore during the search once they were confronted with the evidence.

    “This disclosure includes Rs 13 crore of bogus ‘trade payables’,” it said.

    The group, it said, therefore devised a complex strategy of earning huge “unaccounted” income through the creation of sophisticated financial layers of “dubious and bogus” entities spread across multiple states, to route this unaccounted money back into the main businesses without paying any taxes.

    “The total amount of such unaccounted layering through bogus entities exceeds Rs 170 crore while the total unaccounted transactions exceed Rs 200 crore,” it claimed.

    The CBDT said the “unaccounted” amounts so earned were used partly for the purchase and construction of property.

    “Evidence of unaccounted payments in cash running into crores has been found during the search.

    “Evidence has also been found to indicate that payments exceeding Rs 2 crore have been made in cash by one of the businesses in violation of provisions of Income-tax Act, 1961,” it alleged.

    Huge unaccounted money has also been deposited in a group trust and routed to the main concerns, the statement alleged.

  • Income Tax raids on Kolkata group leads to over Rs 300-crore black money

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has detected undisclosed income of over Rs 300 crore after raiding a Kolkata-based group engaged in the business of manufacturing iron, steel and tea, the CBDT said on Monday.

    The searches were carried out on January 29 at twenty-five premises in Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Mumbai and some other places on the basis of information available to the taxman through the group’s finanical statements, market intelligence and field enquiries, it said.

    “A total concealment of income amounting to Rs 309 crore has been detected so far.

    The assessees have made an admission of undisclosed income amounting to Rs 175 crore,” the CBDT said in a statement.

    The Central Board of Direct Taxes frames policy for the tax department.

    It said the action “resulted in unearthing of incriminating evidence revealing various shell or paper entities being used for raising bogus share capital and un-secured loans”.

    “Evidence of out of the books cash transactions has also been found,” it claimed.

    It is established, the CBDT said, that the persons of the group have used paper or shell companies to route back their own “unaccounted” money.