Hasan Ali Khan, the Pune-based stud farm owner alleged to be the country’s biggest tax evader, on Friday appeared before Income Tax (I-T) authorities following a summons for alleged tax evasion, the penalty on which could run into an estimated Rs 40,000 crore.
Khan, who was “absconding” for about two years, arrived at the assessment wing of the I-T department here around noon and was there for about five hours, IT sources said. “Recovery and penalty proceedings are going on and the penalty runs into several thousand crore rupees,” said a senior IT official.
Another official maintained the penalty alone could be around Rs 40,000 crore. The latest summons to Khan that prompted his appearance on Friday was served on Monday. In January 2007, the I-T department had raided his residence in Pune and seized documents that showed he allegedly had $8.04 billion in a UBS account in Zurich. The raid followed information that he had concealed his income and not filed tax returns since 1999.