Rs 195-cr tax evasion detected in J&K

The income tax department has detected tax evasion worth over Rs 195 crore in the Jammu and Kashmir state.

Giving the details, a senior official of the income tax department's J&K circle disclosed that for the first time, such a huge evasion of tax had been detected here.

The official disclosed that income tax sleuths scrutinised 953 returns of the income tax payers till December end. The tax evasion detected was nearly Rs 195 crore including Rs 93 crore in one case.

The additional demand of Rs 195 crore is required to be paid by the tax payers within thirty days from the date of service of the notice on them. After the expiry of this period, the department will start the recovery process. The accounts and properties of the defaulters can be attached in case the assesses do not come forward to pay the tax voluntarily or request for suitable installments according to the provisions of the income tax laws.

Last year, tax evasion to the tune of Rs 75 crore was detected and a total of 459 cases were scrutinised. The income tax department is gathering details of all those traders whose annual turnover is Rs 40 lakh and paying sales tax but prefer not to file income tax returns.

In district Anantnag alone, nearly 200 such cases have been detected.

Giving the figures, the official disclosed that the income tax department collected net tax to the tune of Rs 328 crore by the last year end, as against Rs 223 crore collected during the corresponding period of the previous financial year, registering a growth of 46 per cent in the state. This growth in J&K is better than the all-India average of 42 per cent.

Last fiscal, the income tax department's total tax collection was Rs 383 crore while for the current financial year, a target of Rs 525 crore has been fixed.

A total of 87,675 income tax returns were filed during the last fiscal, but during the current fiscal till now, nearly 84,807 returns have been filed including 6,000 new ones.