Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 1st November, 2021         

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Bihar and Jharkhand

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operation on a prominent road construction contractor in Bihar and Jharkhand. The search action was initiated on 27.10.2021 at various premises located in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.

The searches revealed that the group has been suppressing its profits by inflating expenses on purchase of materials. Such excess material is sold in the market in cash but cash so generated remains unaccounted. 

It has been also found that the group has indulged in obtaining accommodation entries for inflating other business expenses. Incriminating documents such as handwritten diaries have been seized from the premises of commission agents who have been assisting the assessee group in these dubious practices. These seized documents carry evidences of unaccounted cash generation and movement of material. The search operation has further revealed that the group is also suppressing contractual receipts and service income. It was further seen that the group is not maintaining proper books of accounts, including supporting documents like bills and vouchers.

 Various incriminating documents recovered and seized during the search indicate the movement of unaccounted cash between different locations for its investment in immovable properties at various locations and cash expenses of personal nature. It has been detected during the search operation that the commission agents and suppliers of bogus bills have also evaded tax on crores of income as they have indulged in providing accommodation entries to other parties as well. 

The search action has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs 5.71 crore. Ten bank lockers have been placed under restraint. Investment made in fixed deposits, etc. of about Rs. 60 crore is under verification. The search action has led to the detection of unaccounted income to the tune of about Rs. 100 crore. 

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, 26th October, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Punjab

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations in the cases of two groups based in Punjab.

The search action in case of the first group was initiated on 21.10.2021. This group is engaged in Cycle business. The group has been found to be involved in suppression of income by showing bogus intra-group transactions within group concerns. 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. Incriminating documents related to the undisclosed sale of scrap have also been seized.

The search also revealed undisclosed investments by the group members in immovable properties.

The search action has led to detection of unaccounted income of about Rs. 150 crore. The search action has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 2.25 crore and seizure of unaccounted gold of Rs. 2 crore in this group.

The second group, based in Jalandhar, is engaged in providing immigration & study visa related services to students. The search action in this group was initiated on 18.10.2021.

The search action has revealed 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. Almost the entire receipts of the group, aggregating to more than Rs. 200 crore in the last 5 years are in cash. It has also been found that the bank accounts of the employees have been used to receive money, which has subsequently been withdrawn in cash. The profit earned from such receipts has never been disclosed in the Income Tax Returns filed. Only the commission received from foreign universities has been shown as receipts in the Income Tax Returns by the members of the group.

The search action has led to detection of unaccounted income of about Rs. 40 crore. The search action has also resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 20 lakh and seizure of unaccounted jewellery of Rs. 33 lakh.

Further investigations are in progress in both the groups.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Click here to read and download CBDT Clarification

 

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