Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 25th October, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searchesin Nashik

The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on 21.10.2021 in the case of a person engaged in the real estate business, primarily operating as a land aggregator in Nashik.

During the search and seizure operation, many incriminating documents including land agreements, notarized documents and other papers evidencing large scale cash transactions for acquisition of properties have been found and seized. Such transactions are also corroborated by digital evidences extracted from computers and mobile phones.

Further, substantial amount of unaccounted cash was found stored in several private vaults. So far, unaccounted cash of Rs. 23.45 crore has beenseized. One locker is under prohibitory orders.

The main persons, who had invested their unaccounted income towards purchase of large patches of land, were also searched. Most of these persons are engaged in the wholesale trading of onions and other cash crops in thePimpalgaonBaswantregion of Maharashtra. Incriminating evidences, including records of large cash transactions made by these traders for making investments in properties, have also been found and seized. Several bank lockersfound during the search have been put under prohibitory orders.

So far unaccounted income of more than Rs.100 crore has been detected as a result of the search operation. The evidences gathered are being examined and further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 16th October, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income-tax Department's searches in NCR, Haryana & WB reveal large scale under-invoicing of imports

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on an importer and trader of laptops, mobile phones and peripheral parts. The search operations commenced on 10.10.2021 and were spread across the National Capital Region, Haryana and West Bengal.

During the course of the search, several incriminating documents, diaries and digital evidences have been found which reveal that the group is entrenched into large scale under-invoicing and wrongful declaration of goods imported by it. Large number of evidences indicating unrecorded transactions, unaccounted investment in properties, bogus loans taken, etc. have also been gathered.

The modus operandi involves import of goods in the name of shell entities at under-valued and/or wrongful declaration of description of goods imported, with an intent to evade customs duty. Upon clearance at port(s), such goods have been found to be distributed throughout India by way of out-of-books cash transactions. This aspect has been fortified while searching one of the containers at Kolkata Port, where the bill of lading declared the goods as ‘HDMI cables’ valued at Rs 3.8 lakh. However, on de-sealing and searching the same, it has been revealed that the actual goods imported are high value items like laptops, mobile phones etc which are valued at Rs. 64 crore.

The evidences found and seized during the course of the search reveal that the payments for such under-invoiced goods to the foreign consigners have been made through hawala channels. Almost the entire business has been found to be run through such modus-operandi.

Though the value of imports declared at the port of entry by the use of such shell entities in the past 3 years is about Rs. 20 crore, it is estimated that the actual value during this period could be more than Rs. 2000 crore, given the scale of massive under-valuation detected.

The wealth, so generated, has been used for acquisition of high value immovable properties; disguising of cash introduced in the form of bogus rental income and bogus unsecured loans; and deposits in foreign bank accounts.

During the course of the search, unaccounted cash of Rs. 2.75 crore has been seized.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 14th October, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Over 2crore Income Tax Returns filed on the e-Filing portal of the Income Tax Department

The e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department (www.incometax.gov.in) has marked receipt of more than 2 croreIncome Tax returnsas on 13^th October 2021. The new portal was launched on 7th June, 2021 and in the initial period taxpayers had reported glitches and difficulties in the functioning of the portal. A number of technical issues have since been resolved and the performance of the portal has substantially stabilized.

Over 13.44 crore unique taxpayers have logged in till 13th October, 2021.  Approximately 54.70 lakh taxpayers have availed of ‘forgot password’ facility to obtain their passwords.All Income Tax Returns have been made available for e-filing. More than 2 crore ITRs for AY 2021-22 have been filed on the portal, of which ITRs 1 & 4 constitute 86%. It is encouraging to note that more than 1.70 crore returns have been e-verified, out of which 1.49 crore are through Aadhaar based OTP. 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.

Of the verified ITRs 1 & 4, over 1.06crore ITRs have been processed and over 36.22 lakh refunds for AY 2021-22 have been issued. Processing of ITRs 2& 3 will be taken up shortly.

The Digital Signature (DSC) registration of non-residents has been enabled and overall4.87lakh DSCs have been registered. In the simplified process of DSC registration any individual has to register his DSC only once and can use it across any entity where the individual is a partner, director etc without having to re-register again against each entity or role.

Over 15.72 lakh Statutory Forms have been submitted including 9.08 lakh TDS statements, 1.29lakh Form 10A for registration of Trusts/institutions, 1.98 lakh Form 10E for arrears of salary, 23,920 Form 35 pertaining to filing of Appeal and 22,075 DTVSV Form 4 till 13thOctober, 2021.In response to feedback from taxpayers, the submission process of 15CA and 15CB forms required for foreign remittances has been revamped. Over 1.83lakh 15CA and 37,870 15CB forms have been filed. More than 21.40 lakh e-PANs have been allotted onlinefree of cost. The Legal Heir functionality has been enabled for registrations and compliance

Further, e-proceedings and faceless proceedings have been enabled with functionalities including video conferencing for assessment and seeking adjournments or appointment and filings by Authorized Representatives. Taxpayers have been able to view over 12.20 lakh Notices issued by the Department under the Faceless Assessment/Appeal/Penalty proceedings, to which over 6.24 lakh responses have been filed.

The Income Tax Department strongly urges all taxpayers to view their Form 26AS through the e-filing portal to verify the accuracy of the TDS and Tax Payments and avail of pre-filling of ITRs.

All taxpayers who are yet to file their Income Tax returns for AY 2021-22 are requested to file their returns at the earliest.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 9th October, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Cash seizure of over Rs. 142 crore in searches of Income Tax Department in Hyderabad

The Income Tax Department carried out search & seizure operations on 06.10.2021 on a major Pharmaceutical group based out of Hyderabad. This Pharmaceutical group is engaged in the business of manufacturing of intermediates, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and formulations. Majority of the products are exported to foreign countries i.e. USA, Europe, Dubai and other African countries.  The search operation was carried out at about 50 locations in 6 States.

During the searches, hideouts were identified where second set of books of accounts and cash were found. Incriminating evidence in the form of digital media, pen drives, documents, etc. have been found and seized. Incriminating digital evidences were gathered from SAP @ ERP software maintained by the assessee group.

During these searches, issues relating to discrepancies in purchases made from bogus and non-existent entities and artificial inflation of certain heads of expenditure were detected. Further, evidence of on-money payment for purchase of lands was also found. Various other legal issues were also identified such as personal expenses being booked in the company’s books and land purchased by related parties below government registration value.

During the search, several bank lockers have been found, out of which 16 lockers have been operated. The searches have resulted in seizure of unexplained cash amounting to Rs. 142.87 crore so far. The unaccounted income unearthed is estimated to be in the range of about Rs 550 crore till now.

Further investigations and quantification of undisclosed income detected is in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 7th October, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches on certain businessmen / middlemen in Maharashtra

The Income Tax Department carried out a search operation that commenced on 23.09.2021 on a big syndicate involving certain businessmen/middlemen of Maharashtra and some persons holding public offices. The intelligence was developed over 6 months. In all, 25 residential and 15 office premises were covered under the search, while 4 offices were covered under survey. Some suites in Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, permanently rented by two of the middlemen and used for meeting their clients, were also subjected to search. The syndicate, consisting of businessmen/middlemen/associates and persons holding public offices, used various code names in their records and in one case had back-dated records by 10 years. The total transactions detected during this search are to the tune of Rs. 1050 crore.

These middle men provided end-to-end services to corporates and entrepreneurs from land allotment to obtaining all governmental clearances. Despite using encrypted modes of communication and sanitising devices, the Income Tax teams were able to recover critical digital evidence and also located a secret hideout from where various incriminating evidences were recovered. The liaisoners also used 'angadiyas' for transfer of cash and Rs.150 lakh was seized from one of the angadiyas during the search.

The documents recovered include a summary of overall cash generated and disbursed giving the particulars of the amounts received and receivable, each being more than Rs. 200 crore. Key areas of generation of this money have been found to be cash paid by bureaucrats for getting key postings under a certain Ministry, cash paid by the contractors for getting payments released etc. Major amount of cash collected had been distributed to various persons, including someone who is mentioned under a code name.

Furthermore, one of the businessmen/middlemen had also amassed huge unaccounted income by purchasing lands from farmers and transferring the same to Government undertakings/big corporates. Many senior bureaucrats/their relatives and other prominent people have been found to have invested in these schemes.

During the search, evidence unearthed at the office premises includes date-wise transactions for a certain period of cash deposits of around Rs. 27 crore and cash payments of around Rs. 40 crore. Further, evidences have been found of cash payments to the tune of Rs. 23 crore made to various persons, whose names are prefixed with various code words. The said middle man receives payments from various businessmen and industrialists for getting lands under the schemes of Government undertakings, extension of tenders/mining contracts, etc. Further, in a WhatsApp chat, particulars of cash transactions have been found showing receipts of cash of around Rs. 16 crore and outflow of around Rs. 12 crore. 

Some of the persons searched have their own real estate and construction businesses, in respect of which evidences of cash receipts/payments have also been found.

Voluminous digital data has been recovered and seized from mobile phones, pen-drives, hard drives, iCloud, e-mails etc. which is being examined and analyzed.

So far, cash of more than Rs. 4.6 crore and jewellery valued at Rs. 3.42 crore have been seized. 4 lockers found during the search operation have been put under restraint orders.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

 (Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT