Searches at Vishal's office nothing to do with 'Mersal': I-T dept

 A day after searches were carried out at the film production company of actor Vishal, the Income Tax (I-T) department on Tuesday clarified that it was a routine TDS inspection.

The department said the inspection was carried out to check violations of not making proper deduction of taxes and not remitting them to the government account after deduction.

Vishal is also the president of the Tamil Film Producers' Council and general secretary of the Nadigar Sangam.

"This exercise has been on since the beginning of the current financial year throughout Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. So far, the I-T department made such inspections in more than 400 cases in the region," the I-T department said in an official communique here.

Referring to certain reports in both print and electronic media linking searches to a recently released Tamil film, the I-T department denied that the action taken against the film producer had anything to do with the said movie.

"Officials at Chennai conducted inspection at the office of one of the film producers in the city where there was specific information of violation of not remitting to the government account more than Rs 50 lakh of tax deducted during the last financial year 2016-17," it said.

"As per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, this amount should have been deposited in the government account within seven days from the end of the month of deduction".

The inspections by the I-T department at Vishal's firm in the city on Monday came a day after the actor had a war of words with BJP national secretary H Raja over Vijay's latest film Mersal.

Reacting to the I-T searches, Vishal said, ''I don't think there was any political reason behind the search. But even if it is there, I am ready to face it''.

Claiming that he had been paying his taxes regularly, Vishal said, "I don't think it is an act of vendetta".