Evasion of central excise duty to the tune of Rs 50 crore allegedly by three leading jewellers in Tamil Nadu has come to the fore during raids at multiple locations over the last three days.
Following intelligence inputs, Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence sleuths carried out simultaneous searches at the premises of the three jewellers in nine cities between December 26 and 29, a top Central Excise official said today.
The cities where the raids were conducted included Chennai, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Thrissur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and New Delhi and as regards one of the firms, the raids were still on, he added.
One of the leading jewellery outlets operating in Tamil Nadu with branches across the country alone has evaded central excise duty to the tune of Rs 40 crore and immediately after the raids, it paid duty of Rs 12 crore.
"The amount of central excise duty estimated to have been evaded is to the tune of Rs 40 crore by this jewellery," the official told PTI.
Probe revealed a turnover of Rs 4,600 crore between March and November this year and "no central excise duty was paid by it", he said.
It was further found out that the jewellery was registered with the Central Excise Department and "it appears that the evasion is deliberate as the internal records indicate the fact that the management is aware of the duty liability", he said.
As regards another jewellery where search operations were currently on, "(raids) indicate duty evasion to the tune of Rs 14 crore and further inputs are awaited", he said.
The third jewellery retailer had not paid excise duty to the tune of Rs 5 crore. "The duty liability is being estimated and is likely to go up further. A probe is in progress," said the official.
Articles of jewellery attract duty under the Central Excise Tariff Act as per the 2016-17 budgetary provisions and it carries duty at the rate of one per cent on the selling value of the jewellery.
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