I-T Dept probes Rs 10-bn tax refund fraud by govt and PSU employees

I-T wing identifies over 18,000 revised returns, claiming false refunds in Mumbai, Bengaluru

With less than a month left for revising income-tax (I-T) returns for 2016-17, the I-T department has unearthed a giant fraud in multiple cities, where government employees allegedly claimed huge tax refunds forging documents, inflating expenses and not revealing complete information.

In Mumbai alone, around 17,000 revised returns have been filed claiming refunds. Similarly, in Bengaluru, the I-T department has found over 1,000 returns filed with inflated claims on account of payments towards home loans.

Since the I-T department is still investigating the matter, the loss to the department could not be ascertained, but it could go up to over Rs 10