`100cr unaccounted income detected from four

JAMSHEDPUR: Income Tax (IT) department sleuths on Tuesday detected unaccounted income of `100 crore and tax evasion to the tune of `40- 50 crore during raids in plants, residences and offices at 11 locations of three leading city-based businessmen and a chartered accountant here in the steel city.

The businessmen are involved in iron and steel and real estate business.

“We’ve written 10,000 letters asking people to take the benefit of Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) the deadline of which ends on September 30. But some were not taking it seriously, forcing us to resort to search, seizure and prosecution. Today’s raid was part of that drive under IDS,” Shyam Kumar, Jamshedpur IT commissioner, told HT. “Once action is initiated against tax defaulters, they can’t have the IDS benefit and will not just have to pay tax at 60% in place of normal 45% but will also face penalty and prosecution,” warned Shyam Kumar.

The raids led by IT deputy director (Investigation) Vijay Kumar has so far seized `45 lakh in cash, sealed over 100 banks accounts and half a dozen bank lockers belonging to Pawan Poddar and his son Sharat Poddar, Chintu Bhalotia and Chandan Mittal.

Banks have also come under scanner of the IT department after the raids found that several of companies belonging to the trio had fake directors in their boards. Several of their companies had drivers, gardeners and servants as directors.

“Many bank accounts were found to have been opened without know your customer (KYC) forms while may were kept in operation for limited periods. We are writing to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in this regard,” an IT official said.

The raids covered offices of Rani Sati Apartments, Mittal Promoters and Developers, Ingot plant on NH-33, plants and plots in Dhalbhumgarh, Chandil, Adityapur, Gamharia and Contractors Area in the city as also residences of Poddar, Mittal and Bhalotia at Jugsalai, Kadma and Circuit House area in the city.

As per IT sources, Pawan Poddar, Sharat Poddar and Chandan Mittal had invested ` 50 crore in properties in Circuit House Area, Bistupur, Adityapur, Sonari and Kadma localities of the city during the past six months.

IT commissioner Shyam Kumar said they have identified 8,000 people who have made transaction between `10 lakh to `50 lakh even though they don’t have permanent account number (PAN) cards. “We’ve written to them urging them to get their PAN cards and avail the benefits of IDS by September 30 or else face action,” said Shyam Kumar.