I-T dept detects Rs 450 crore undisclosed income after raids in TN against 2 groups

New Delhi: The Income-tax department has detected undisclosed income of Rs 450 crore after it searched an IT SEZ developer, its former director and a stainless steel supplier based in Tamil Nadu, the CBDT said on Sunday.

The searches were carried out at 16 premises in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Cuddalore on November 27, it said. "The searches, so far, have resulted in the detection of undisclosed income of more than Rs 450 crore," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement. The Board is the administrative authority for the tax department. In the case of the ex-director of the information technology special economic zone (IT SEZ), the taxman unearthed evidences of about Rs 100 crore "accumulated by the person and his family members in the past 3 years."

"The search further unearthed that the IT SEZ developer claimed bogus work-in-progress expenses of about Rs 160 crore in an under-construction project," the statement said.

"The entity had also claimed capital expenses of around Rs 30 crore on account of bogus consultancy fees in an operational project and inadmissible interest expenses to the extent of Rs 20 crore was also claimed by the entity," it said.

It was found, the CBDT said, that share purchase transactions were undertaken by the developer and the shares were sold by its erstwhile shareholders, a resident and a non-resident entity, which routed its investment through a Mauritius intermediary for about Rs 2,300 crore in financial year 2017-18 but capital gains out of this sale transaction were "not disclosed" to the

department.