IT dept raids 3 commission agents in Punjab

The Income Tax Department has detected tax evasion by alleged ''suppression'' of business receipts and ''inflation'' of expenses after it recently raided three commission agents in Punjab who also dealt with farmers apart from running cold storage facilities and rice mills, the CBDT said on Friday.

The searches against the ''prominent'' commissions agents were launched on September 8 at multiple locations in Punjab and Haryana and they are continuing, it said.

''These groups are also engaged in the business of running steel rolling mill, cold storage, general mills, jewelry shop, poultry farms, rice mills, oil mill, flour mill apart from the business of commission agents,'' the CBDT said in a statement.

It said the raids found that the groups ''are suppressing their business receipts and inflating expenses.'' ''They also do not account for most of the sums received and paid in cash. Certain documents showing payments of on-money in cash in acquiring immovable properties have been seized,'' it said.

''In one of the groups, it has been found that the purchases of fruits have been done during the harvest period at low cost, whereas the sales have been done in odd period at very high rates after storing the goods in cold storage. Similar modus operandi has been found in other groups,'' it claimed.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) frames policy for the tax department. The statement said ''unaccounted'' cash of Rs 1.70 crore and jewelry of Rs 1.50 crore has been found during the raids apart from an ''unexplained'' stock of flour valued at Rs 1.50 crore.

Eight bank lockers have also been found and are being checked, it said.

The department also made some other findings.

''Books of accounts or 'Kacha that bahi' written in Laddo script have been found, which show substantial unaccounted transactions running into crores. These books of account are being deciphered with the help of an expert,'' it said.

The CBDT said tax authorities also found parallel sets of books of accounts of some of the business concerns which show suppression of gross business receipts running into crores on yearly basis.

''It is found that advances in cash aggregating to crores are given to farmers and interest rates of 1.5 percent to 3 percent per month are charged. The interest is received in cash and not shown in the books of account,'' it alleged.

The taxman found that cash purchase and sale related to poultry business and rice sheller worth more than Rs 9 crore was done and ''unaccounted'' purchases of Rs 1.29 crore have been found from one of the premises in Jalandhar.

''Two suspected Benami firms in the names of employees have been unearthed, whose turnovers are in crores per year,'' it said.

''In one of the concerns, the main assessee has accepted that payments in violation of Section 40A(3) of the Income Tax Act (about cash payments) have been made running into crores over the years, by accounting the same after splitting the payments in the books of account,'' it alleged.

In the case of steel rolling mills, the taxman found a discrepancy in stocks of the finished good.

Unaccounted investment in immovable property of Rs 3.40 crore has been detected and has also been ''accepted' by the owners of the properties, it said.

''Diversion of business funds as interest-free loans/advances to family members of one of the groups has been detected,'' it claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)