Bengaluru: Sleuths of the Income Tax department unearthed a total of Rs 169 crore undisclosed income from real estate developers and mall owners during two search operations in the city over the last three days, said an official on Monday.
“In the first case, we have found a group of realtors providing and receiving accommodation entries to reduce taxable income. The group was also in receipt of money (Rs 143 crore) from property transactions,” said tax official Alex Mathew in a statement here.
In the second case, the assesses (mall owners) were found to have not disclosed an income of Rs 26 crore in cash from sales component.
“The assesses had disguised personal expenses as business expenses and made unaccounted investments in gold and jewellery,” added Mathew.
In another case, where the Investigation wing had conducted searches in December 2015, prosecution proceedings u/s 276C(2) and 277 of the Income-Tax Act have been launched by the Income-tax Department by filing complaints in the JMFC court at Raichur, on charges of wilful attempt to evade tax and interest and for making false statements.
If found correct, the charges framed attract imprisonment upto 7 years, in addition to levy of fine. The JMFC court, Raichur has fixed the hearing of the case on January 5.
During the search and seizure operations conducted under section 132 of the I-T Act, the Income Tax Department has seized approximately Rs.20 Crore in cash along with incriminating documents. Unaccounted income of more than Rs.500 crore was unearthed in the said group cases.
In the meanwhile, the assessee has filed an anticipatory bail application before the Principal District Court, Raichur last week, and is likely to be taken up for hearing this week, says an official press release from the Income Tax Department.
