Demonetisation: I-T detects Rs 47.74 cr unaccounted income of bullion traders, jewellers

Bengaluru: The Income Tax department on Friday said it has detected undisclosed income of Rs 47.74 crore after surveys were conducted at half-a-dozen bullion traders and jewellers in the city following surge in their sales post demonetisation.

Officials said the operations were carried out after the investigation wing of the department here got inputs that these traders dealing in the yellow metal and precious stones recorded sales much higher than that in the same period last year.

"Apart from receipts in RTGS (funds transfer system through bank) in their (traders) accounts, there were huge cash deposits. On verification of cash sales, it was found that more of these transactions were done in October-November this year and all cash transactions were kept below the Rs 2 lakh threshold and without any details regarding the customer to whom the sale was made.

"We suspect this was apparently done to avoid Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and mandatory quoting of purchasers' PAN. Huge cash deposits in bank accounts after demonetisation have been noticed in these cases. It is found that some of these jewellers have back-dated the bills and even paid VAT to to give the transactions a colour of genuineness," they said.

Officials added in some cases, it was found that the sales had been "suppressed" previous years too.

"Further investigations are on to verify the genuineness of RTGS received in their account. Some of the jewellers are found to have not filed the returns of income also for the past several years. The surveys have resulted in detection of undisclosed income of Rs 47.74 crore," they said.

In an another case in Anekal village of the city, the taxman seized a total cash of Rs 1.15 crore, with Rs 1.07 crore in new notes, from a transporter who was indulging in illegal conversion of old currency.