Tax officials conduct searches against bureaucrats; detect Rs 20 crore black money, luxury cars

Taxmen conducted searches on bureaucrats in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and found undisclosed income worth over Rs 20 crore.

Raids were conducted during the last two days against four government functionaries in these states including against a general manager of the Uttar Pradesh Rajkiya Nirman Nigam Ltd (UPRNN) in Dehradun for alleged "misuse of official position" and subsequent charges of tax evasion.

"Documents showing undisclosed investments in farm houses spread over hundreds of bighas and immovable properties in other cities have been seized," a senior official told PTI.

Apart from income, tax officials also detected costly assets and luxury vehicles such as Range Rover, an Audi and a BMW car from the premises of the official and his family.

They said the I-T teams were surprised to find 15 large LED television sets fitted in the farm house which was constructed on a land earmarked to setup a factory. A well- equipped gym, a guest house and an under-construction swimming pool were also found there.

"The department is probing tax evasion to the tune of a few crores against the official and his associates based in Rishikesh," they claimed, without elaborating further.

In an another search operation against a local body chairman in UP's Siddharthnagar district, the department detected tax evasion to the "tune of Rs 10 crore as per preliminary estimates."

"The Chairman owns two petrol pumps and a gas agency and has been found to be allegedly diverting development grants for personal benefits," the official said.

The department also raided the premises of a senior official in Noida and that of a UP road transport department officer based in Kanpur.

"The Noida officer was found to have made unaccounted cash payments for purchase of immovable properties worth more than Rs 2 crore in the name of his spouse," the official said, adding he will soon be issued summons to join investigation.

Investigation against the Kanpur-based officer is ongoing, the official added.

The department, the official said, will undertake similar action against few more bureaucrats who are on its radar for quite sometime now.

Over Rs 540 crore black money has been detected by the department in the last 15 days as part of its nation-wide operations to check tax evasion. These actions come after the closure of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY) black money window on March 31.

In the first fortnight of the new financial year that began on April 1, the taxman has conducted multiple search and survey operations on entry operators (agents using banking channels to launder funds), shell firms, government officials, real estate players and other sectors.

As per an official data compiled till April 15, the department has carried out "over 250 searches and survey operations where the taxman raided at least 300 shell firms and detected more than Rs 540 crore of black money."