Tax dept seizes Rs 14.5 crore in cash across three states
New Delhi | Published: April 27, 2018 2:15:27 am
The income Tax (I-T) department has seized Rs 14.48 crore in cash during raids at various locations across three states, including poll-bound Karnataka. The department was acting upon information received regarding “substantial bank transfers followed by big cash withdrawals”, a tax official said.
The raids by the tax department come in the wake of cash crunch seen in various parts of the country. The total cash seized in these searches is Rs 14.48 crore and the seized currency is largely in the higher denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500, officials said.
Some searches were carried out against prominent PWD contractors in poll-bound Karnataka, who were awarded contracts during January-March this year. The searches carried out last week led to unearthing and seizure of Rs 6.76 crore in cash, mainly from the benami lockers detected during the operations, they said. Over a dozen contractors in Mysore and Bengaluru were covered as part of the action, they said. The cash was found to be in the denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 and some of the searched assessees were found to be not maintaining the books of accounts, they said.
The Rs 6.76 crore seized last week took the total amount of seizure in the poll-abound state since the announcement of election schedule to Rs 10.89 crore. The tax department has also seized jewellery worth Rs 1.32 crore from the state.
In Hyderabad, the department conducted raids on two realtors that led to a seizure of Rs 5.10 crore of “unaccounted cash” in high-value denominations, they said.
In a similar action in Punjab’s Khanna district, a group engaged in manufacturing and sale of cattle feed was searched and it led to the seizure of cash amounting to Rs 2.62 crore along with jewellery and bullion of Rs 66.49 lakh, officials said.
The group was making purchases and sales outside the books in cash and was showing a low profit ratio and 5 lockers of the group are still under the attachment ordered by the tax authority, they said. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), had recently asked its investigation wings in the country to check instances of cash hoarding. Also, the department is maintaining a vigil on cash transactions after the announcement of Karnataka elections on March 27.
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