Tax department seizes cash, jewellery worth ₹102 cr from various premises

livemint.com:

₹102 crore in a search operation conducted at the premises of certain government contractors, real estate developers and their associates on 12 October, the department said in a statement. About 55 premises were covered during the search in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and New Delhi, the department statement said. The search resulted in seizure of allegedly unaccounted cash of about Rs94 crore and gold and diamond jewellery of over ₹8 crore, aggregating to more than R 102 crore.

Further, a cache of about 30 luxury wrist watches of foreign make were unearthed from the premises of a private salaried employee, the statement said. The search led to the detection of a large number of incriminating evidence in the form of documents and digital data, the statement said. The contractors were allegedly involved in suppressing their income by inflation of expenses by booking bogus purchases, non-genuine claim of expenses with sub-contractors and claiming ineligible expenses, the statement said.

The irregularities detected in utilization of contract receipts, has resulted in generation of huge unaccounted cash and creation of undisclosed assets, the statement said. The department said that the contractors it searched were also allegedly involved in booking expenses for non-business purposes. The tax authority does not disclose the identity of the assessees.

Large scale unaccounted cash transactions, which were not found recorded in the books of account, have also been found during the search, from the premises of assessees, sub-contractors, and associates including certain cash handlers, the department said. Further investigations are in process. Real estate developers and jewellers frequently come in the