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Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
New Delhi, 6th August, 2022
PRESS RELEASE
Income Tax Department conducts searches in Tamil Nadu
The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 02.08.2022 in the cases of certain producers, distributors, and financiers associated with the film Industry. The search operations were conducted at almost 40 premises located in Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore and Vellore.
During the course of the search operations, several incriminating documents and digital evidence etc., relating to unaccounted cash transactions and investments have been seized. Secret and hidden premises have also been unearthed during the search. The searches in the cases of film financiers have revealed documents like promissory notes etc., relating to unaccounted cash loans, which were advanced to various film production houses and others. In the cases of film production houses, evidences reveal tax evasion, as the actual amounts realized from the release of the films are much more than the amounts shown in the regular books of account. The unaccounted income so generated by them is deployed for undisclosed investments as well as for various undisclosed payments.
Similarly, evidences seized in the cases of film distributors, indicate collection of unaccounted cash from the theatres. As per the evidences, the distributors have formed syndicates and have systematically suppressed the theatre collections, resulting in the suppression of actual income.
So far, the search operation has resulted in detection of undisclosed income exceeding Rs. 200 crore. Undisclosed cash of Rs.26 crore and unaccounted gold jewellery exceeding Rs. 3 crore have been seized.
Further investigations are in progress.
(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax(OSD)
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
New Delhi, 3rd August, 2022
PRESS RELEASE
Income Tax Department conducts searches on Healthcare Provider Groups in Haryana and Delhi-NCR
The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 27.07.2022 on several groups engaged in the healthcare services by running hospitals. A total of 44 premises were covered during the search action in Delhi-NCR.
During the course of the search operation, huge incriminating physical and digital evidence has been seized.
The analysis of evidences revealed that the one of the groups was maintaining a parallel set of books of account, indicating systematic under-reporting of receipts received from patients in cash. The modus-operandi adopted by this group included removal of invoices or deflation of the invoice amount by marking them as “Discounts/Concessions” etc., at the time of discharge of patients from the hospital. This practice, resulting in evasion of income, is being followed across all the hospitals of the group and is spread over various years.
The other healthcare groups covered in the search operation have been found to be engaged in obtaining either bogus or inflated invoices for pharmaceutical drugs and/or medical devices such as stents, leading not only to suppression of actual profits, but also overcharging from the patients. The money trail found during the investigations has further corroborated the fact that the groups have been receiving back cash in lieu of payments made through banking channels for these bogus/inflated invoices. One of the hospitals of these groups was also found to be claiming wrong deduction over the years without fulfilling the necessary conditions for the hospital to be eligible as specified business.
The seized evidence has also revealed the practice of referral payment to doctors and clinics without duly recording these in the books of account. The referral payment has been fixed at a percentage of invoices raised to the patients. Evidences pertaining to transaction of benami nature have also been uncovered during the search action.
The search operation has led to the seizure of unexplained cash of over Rs.3.50 crore and jewellery valued at Rs. 10.00 crore. So far, the unaccounted income of all the groups detected in these operations, is estimated to be more than Rs. 150 crore. More than 30 bank lockers have been put under restraint.
Further investigations are in progress.
(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax (OSD)
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
New Delhi, 2nd August, 2022
PRESS RELEASE
Income Tax Department conducts searches in Gujarat
The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on 20.07.2022 on a prominent business conglomerate engaged in diversified fields of Textiles, Chemicals, Packaging, Real estate and Education. The search action covered a total of 58 premises, spread across Kheda, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
As a result of the search operation, various incriminating evidences in the form of documents and digital data have been found and seized. These evidences reveal that the group has been engaged in large scale tax evasion by adopting various methods, including, by way of unaccounted cash sales outside the books of account, booking of bogus purchases and on-money receipts from real estate transactions. The group has also been found involved in layering of unaccounted sums through share premium from Kolkata-based shell companies. Certain instances of unaccounted income generated through cash based ‘sarafi’ (unsecured) advances made have also been found.
It was also found that the group has been involved in profiteering through manipulation of share prices of its listed companies through operators. Evidences seized also reveal that the group has been siphoning off funds through fictitious entities for personal use of promoters. Further, analysis of evidence suggests that the group is also involved in manipulation of books of account of its public limited companies.
The search action has resulted in unearthing unaccounted transactions exceeding Rs.1000 crore. So far, unaccounted cash of Rs. 24 crore and unexplained jewellery, bullion etc. valued at Rs. 20 crore have been seized during the course of search.
Further investigations are in progress.
(Surabhi Ahluwalia)
Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax(OSD)
(Media & Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT
Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes
PRESS RELEASE
New record of over 72.42 lakh (7.24 m) ITRs filed on a single day and about 5.83 crore ITRs filed till 31st July, 2022
The Department expresses its gratitude to taxpayers and tax professionals for making compliances in time leading to a surge in filing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) resulting in a new record of ITRs filed on a single day.
The surge of filing ITRs peaked on 31st July, 2022 (due date for salaried taxpayers and other non-tax audit cases) with over 72.42 lakh ITRs being filed on a single day i.e on 31st July,2022. The total ITRs filed till 31st July, 2022 for AY 22-23 is about 5.83 crore. The e-filing portal also set other benchmarks on 31st July, 2022 including - highest per second rate of ITR filing: 570 (at 4:29:30 pm), highest per minute rate of ITR filing: 9573 (at 7:44 pm), and the highest per hour rate of ITR filing: 5,17,030, between 5 PM to 6 PM.
The initial pace of e-filing was relatively much slower with the first 1 crore ITRs for AY 22-23 being filed only by 7th July, 2022. The pace picked up marginally, with about 2.48 crore ITRs being filed by 22nd July,2022. With the Government announcing that there would be no extension of the due date, there was a surge in filing of ITRs and by 25th July, 2022, 3 crore ITRs had been filed. By the end of the day on 31st July,2022, 72.42 lakh ITRs had been filed, shattering all previous records (maximum being 49 lakh ITRs in 2019). In the month of July,2022 alone, over 5.13 crore ITRs have been filed.
Out of 5.83 crore ITRs filed for AY 2022-23, 50% of these are ITR-1 (2.93 crore), 11.5% are ITR-2 (67 lakh), 10.9% are ITR-3 (63.35 lakh), 26% are ITR-4 (1.54 crore), ITR-5 to 7 (5.5 lakh). The number of ITRs filed during working hours (9 AM-6 PM) since 7th July, 2022 to 31st July, 2022 is around 3.31 crore, which is 58.77% of the total ITRs filed. Over 47% of these ITRs have been filed using the online ITR form on the portal and the balance have been uploaded using the ITR created from the offline software utilities.
Large number of taxpayers did their due diligence by comparing data of their income by viewing their Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS). A high rate of usage of AIS/TIS data was reflected by the fact that more than 5.03 crore taxpayers viewed/downloaded their AIS.
This year a large portion of the data for ITR-1 was already prefilled with salary, interest and dividend income making compliance easier for taxpayers. For other ITRs 2, 3, 4, apart from this data, property details for rental income, brought forward losses, MAT credit was also pre-filled to further ease compliance for taxpayers.
The process of e-verification through Aadhaar OTP and other methods is important for the Department to commence processing of the ITR and to issue refunds, if any. It is encouraging to note that 3.96 crore returns have been e-verified, out of which more than 3.71 crore are through Aadhaar based OTP (94%). Of the e-verified ITRs, more than 3.01 crore ITRs for AY 2022-23 have been processed (75%). In several instances, taxpayers have been getting their intimation of processing within a few minutes or hours after filing and verification of ITRs.
Further, the new facility for making tax payment (TIN 2.0) has been launched on the e-filing portal with two banks- Kotak Mahindra Bank and Federal Bank. Over 73,910 challans have been received through these banks till July 31st, 2022 totalling to Rs. 518.5 crore.
The e-filing Helpdesk team has assisted and resolved over 1.45 lakh queries this year till 31st July, 2022. Total calls answered in the last week of July, 2022 was 1,05,800 and maximum calls of 18,341 were received on 26th July, 2022. Helpdesk team also supported resolution of grievances received on the Twitter handle of the Department by proactively reaching out to the taxpayers/ stakeholders and assisting them with any issues, almost on a real-time basis.
The Department reiterates its gratitude for the support in timely compliances and requests all taxpayers to e-verify their ITRs at the earliest. The Department also urges taxpayers, who for any reason, missed the due date, to complete their filing immediately.
F.No.282/04/2022-IT (Inv.V), Pt. I/136
Ministry of Finance
(Department of Revenue)
(Central Board of Direct Taxes)
(Investigation Division-V)
Order authorizing 'Prescribed Authority' for the purpose of e-Verification Scheme, 2021
Dated: 20th July, 2022
In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (J) of sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 2 of the e-Verification Scheme, 2021, the Central Board of Direct Taxes, hereby authorises the Director General of Income-tax, Directors of Income-tax, Additional Directors of Income-tax, Joint Directors of Income-tax, Deputy Directors of Income-tax, Assistant Directors of Income-tax, Income Tax Officers and Inspectors of Income-tax working in the Directorate of Income-tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) as "Prescribed Authority" for the purposes of the said Scheme.
Krishna K Ramawat,
Under Secretary to the Government of India