JOIN USIn a first, the Income-Tax (I-T) department has put out in the public domain a list of 18 tax defaulters who owe the exchequer over Rs 500 crore.
Two of the 18 defaulters, Goldsukh Trade India from Jaipur and Blue Information Technologies from Ahmedabad, have the highest tax liabilities of over Rs 75 crore each. But the chances of recovery looks dim as the assesses are not traceable. An exhaustive list of defaulters includes their name, date of birth, last known address, their PAN numbers and the assessment years.
The list has names of only those defaulters who have tax dues of over Rs 10 crore.
Most of them are from Gujarat. “Periodically, the income tax department has been ‘naming and shaming’ wilful defaulters but this is the first time a few names have been made public,” a senior tax official said.
During a recent meeting of its senior officials, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had decided to put in public domain select cases of chronic and persistent defaulters.
The names have been put out on the website of the I-T Department after the officials made efforts to reach out to the taxpayers. Earlier, the officials had said that they had written to the taxpayers, sent notices and even asked for voluntary compliance.
Now they needed public help in identifying them and their concealed assets for attachment.
The companies whose names have been included in the list are: Somani Cement with tax arrears of Rs 27.47 crore, Appletech Solutions (Rs 27.07 cr), Jupiter Business (Rs 21.31 cr), Hirak Biotech (Rs 18.54 cr), Icon Bio Pharma & Healthcare Ltd (Rs 17.69 cr), Banyan & Berry Alloys (Rs 17.48 cr), Laxminarayan T Thakkar (Rs 12.49 cr), Virag Dyeing & Printing (Rs 18.57 cr), Poonam Industries (Rs 15.84 cr), Kunvar Ajay
Food Pvt Ltd (Rs 15 cr), Victor Credit & Construction (Rs 13.81 cr), Noble Merchandise (Rs 11.93 cr) and G K Dharne (Rs 38.31 crore). The I-T department is also considering publishing the names of tax defaulters in newspapers but that would be done at a later stage, another official said.
Also, a reward scheme for informers who could provide any information resulting in collection of “outstanding demand” from such tax defaulters is being considered. The identity of the informers shall be kept a secret.