*Investment of concealed income in real estate detected
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 5: Notwithstanding the criticism from different quarters, the raids of the Income Tax Department in the premises of six top jewelers of Jammu have led to surrender of Rs 24 crore undisclosed income by five of them besides seizure of Rs 1.25 lakh cash and Rs 50 lakh worth jewelry. This figure would go up considerably as the sixth jeweler is also likely to surrender undisclosed income and five lockers sealed during the raids are yet to be operated by the IT Department.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that finding themselves in the dragnet of the Investigation Wing of the Income Tax Department, which laid hands on several incriminating documents during the raids continued for more than 24 hours, five of the six jewelers surrendered a total of Rs 24 crore concealed income.
As per the break of total amount, Ravindra Jewelers surrendered Rs 10 crore followed by Silverlines, which has admitted to have concealed an amount of Rs 5 crore. Similarly, Krishna Jewelers and Shiv Jewelers surrendered Rs 4 crore each while as Suri Jewelers surrendered Rs one crore undisclosed income.
Besides Rs 24 crore surrender, the IT raids also yielded Rs 1.25 crore unexplained cash from these jewelers and Rs 50 lakh worth jewelry of family members, sources said.
In response to a question, sources said, “the figure of Rs 24 crore will go up considerably as Talla Jewelers has yet not surrendered any undisclosed income. Talla Jewelers has reportedly offered to surrender few crores of rupees”, adding “moreover, the documents impounded during the raids are yet to be put to detailed scrutiny”.
They further said that five lockers, which were sealed during more than 24 hours long continuous raids, would be opened within next one or two days and possibility of undisclosed income having been kept there cannot be ruled out. “The modus operandi of these jewelers was to keep major portion of the stock out of the books in order to avoid income tax”, sources said in response to another question.
Disclosing that the undisclosed income was mainly being invested in the real estate business, sources disclosed that from Suri Jewelers, which surrendered Rs 1 crore undisclosed income, more than 100 Registries of different chunks of land at different places were recovered. Similarly, Silverlines was found having invested concealed income in the real estate and bullion, sources added.
This was the highest ever surrender made during the raids of the Income Tax Department’s Investigation Wing in the State. In April 2011 such raids had yielded Rs 16.5 crore undisclosed income.
According to the sources, the raids, which were planned on the basis of credible information about the evasion of tax by these jewelers, were carried out by 98 officers mostly of the Investigation Wing from Gurgaon, Panipat, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Jammu. The raids were closely supervised by Joint Director Investigation, Jallandhar, Manish Sareen. These raids were planned on the basis of concrete information gathered by the Investigating Wing’s officers posted in Jammu under the immediate control of Deputy Director Rajeev Gabgotra.
Responding to a question about the general observation that raids and surveys are only conducted in Jammu region with little focus on Kashmir valley, sources said, “the Investigation Wing doesn’t have any hitch in conducting such raids in Valley provided it gets credible information about large scale evasion of tax”.
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