The Income Tax Department is investigating two sets of declarations of Rs2 lakh crore (Rs2tn) and Rs13,860 (Rs138.6bn) made from Mumbai and Ahmedabad respectively, after the declarants were found to be ‘persons of suspicious nature’ and ‘of very small means.’
The Rs2tn declaration was made by a family of four people in Mumbai and the other by a Gujarat businessman.
The Mumbai family of four - Abdul Razzaque M Sayed, his son Mohamed Arif Abdul Razzaque Sayed, his wife Rukhsana Abdul Razzaque Sayed, and his sister Noorjahan Mohamed Sayed – are residents of Bandra, according to a Finance Ministry statement.
Mahesh Shah, a businessman from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, created a sensation by declaring a whopping Rs138.6bn in unaccounted wealth under the Income Declaration Scheme that ended on September 30.
Shah went underground on November 29 and appeared at the ETV studio in Ahmedabad a week later only to claim that the declared money did not belong to him and that he was used as a front by some businessmen and politicians to declare their money.
Among the declarations received, the Income Tax Department found these two sets of declarations “suspicious” and did not take them on record, which showed a total declaration of Rs67,382 crore made by 71,726 declarants as on October 1, the statement said.
“These declarations from Mumbai and Ahmedabad were kept pending for investigation about the genuineness of the same and were not included in the total value of declarations announced on 1st October, 2016. After due inquiry, it was found that these declarants were persons of suspicious nature and very small means and the declarations could have been misused,” it added.
“Therefore, after due consideration, the Income Tax Department decided by November 30, 2016, to reject these two sets of declarations of Rs200,000 crore and Rs13,860 crore. The department has since commenced inquiries against these declarants to determine the intention behind these false declarations,” said the statement.
The Income Declaration Scheme was announced in the budget 2016-17 under which declaration of undisclosed income or asset could be made by agreeing to pay 45% of the declared amount as tax, surcharge and penalty. The scheme closed on September 30 this year.
Meanwhile, the government yesterday warned Jan Dhan account holders not to let their deposits be misused following the November 8 demonetisation.
The warning came after a sudden surge in deposits in the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana accounts showed up various inconsistencies.
“Investigations being conducted by the Income Tax Department across India into the sudden surge in cash deposits in Jan Dhan accounts have revealed various inconsistencies,” the Finance Ministry statement said.
“Undisclosed moneys of approximately Rs1.64 crore deposited by persons who have never filed returns of income being below the taxable limits into their Jan Dhan accounts have already been detected at Kolkata, Midnapore, Ara (Bihar), Kochi and Varanasi.
“Rs40 lakh has been seized from one such account in Bihar,” it said
“Undisclosed income so detected will be brought to tax as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, apart from other actions depending upon the outcome of investigations,” it added.
A stray dog rests as people queue outside an ATM to withdraw cash in Kolkata
