I-T dept raids business group operating in Jharkhand, West Bengal

The Income Tax department has conducted raids in Jharkhand and West Bengal against a business group involved in the production of vanaspati ghee and other commodities on the charges of tax evasion, the CBDT said on Saturday.

It said the searches launched on Friday revealed "substantial evidences of transactions outside the regular books of accounts, unaccounted cash expenses and cash advances received and interest having been paid in cash".

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said at least "20 residential and business premises of the prominent group having operations in Jharkhand and West Bengal" were raided by the Income Tax officials.

"The group is engaged in trading of various commodities, production of vanaspati ghee, real estate, tea estates and also has real estate projects in Kolkata," CBDT said in a statement.

The Board, which frames policy for the tax department, did not identify the business group.

It said, "cash has been found to have been introduced in the group shell companies, which has been advanced as a loan to the real estate company".

"Most of the companies have family members as directors and do not have any real business and very few returns of income have been filed. Most of the returns with ROC (registrar of companies) have also not been filed," CBDT alleged.

One such group company has no business since 2014 although it has shown sales of Rs 7 crore in cash, it said.

"This cash has been deposited in bank accounts in Kolkata, whereas cash sale is shown in books to buyers from Jharkhand," the statement said.

The department seized hard discs, pen drives and handwritten diaries during the raids.

"Certain handwritten diaries found indicate giving and taking of loans in cash and out of books receipt of cash on account of booking of commercial space in the real estate project.

"Evidences of out of books cash payments to contractors and fictitious payments to a dummy contractor have also been found," it claimed.

The project cost recorded in books has been found to be "understated" as evidences of out of book cash expenses for construction have been found, it said.

"As per preliminary estimates, evidences of cash transactions of around Rs 40 crore have been found. Advances received for the real estate project of around Rs 80 crore are also under examination," it said.