This story is from March 24, 2018

I-T net collection in Karnataka, Goa to cross Rs 1 lakh crore this year

I-T net collection in Karnataka, Goa to cross Rs 1 lakh crore this year
BENGALURU: The net collection of income tax (I-T) from Karnataka and Goa region will cross Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time, the department said on Thursday. For those who haven’t filed returns in the past two years, the last date is March 31.
“The collection for the entire country was only Rs 1 lakh crore in 2004. Just over a decade later, we’ve been able to collect that much from just one region,” principal chief commissioner of I-T (Karnataka and Goa region) Rajnish Kumar said.

As on date, the department has collected Rs 98,000 crore, up from Rs 89,500 crore last year. Warning those evading tax of prosecution, Kumar said: “While the law always allowed prosecution, it was a tool seldom used earlier. Now, we’ve completely digitised the system and all the data is easily maintainable and evaders can be tracked more efficiently.”
For evasion of more than Rs 25,000, the punishment can go up to seven years in jail with fine, while it is three-month imprisonment for lesser amounts.
“There is a big jump in the number of prosecution cases this year. A total of 111 prosecution complaints have been filed in 66 cases for various offences,” the department stated. The sleuths had searched media houses, gutka and sugar manufacturers, educational institutions, IVF clinics among others.
The department said the searches conducted on two gems and jewellery groups revealed unaccounted sales in the form of consignments and discrepancy in stocks. “The total admission of undisclosed income is Rs 128 crore,” it added.

Post DeMo searches
Stating that the department had received a lot of information after the 2016 demonetisation, Kumar said: “We’ve analysed 571 cases of deposits of over Rs 1 crore and 21,628 cases of deposits of more than Rs 1 lakh, where the depositors had not filed the returns. We are tracking all of them.”
The department conducted 50 searches this year and detected undisclosed amount of Rs 5,259 crore. “In one case, one person had transferred properties worth Rs 200 crore in the names of his relatives to evade tax. He will be paying Rs 15 crore in tax now. In another case, an educated couple had been indulging in real estate dealings without paying taxes,” he said.
Many in the fishing community in Mangaluru had not been filing returns, and that a series of searches and surveys have been initiated to bring them under the net, he added.
One arrested
On Wednesday, the department arrested one man who had failed to pay a tax of Rs 16.45 lakh.
Rajnish Kumar, while stating that the department has been empowered to carry out arrests, said the man has been handed over to police.
“The assessee has not paid taxes for 2011-12 and in the meantime parted with assets attached under the Income Tax Act. During a search in October 2010, Rs 5 crore was seized. The department’s power to arrest defaulters has been used after a long period of time in Karnataka,” a statement read, but officials did not mention when the department exercised this power last.
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