The Income-Tax Department has detected undisclosed income of about ₹270 crore during searches on a prominent builder and developer group based in Mumbai.
The searches were carried out at 29 locations in Mumbai, while a survey action was undertaken on 14 premises. The real estate group is developing a commercial mall, having 950 units exclusively for the mobile accessories business.
“Of these, about 905 units have been sold starting from 2017 till date. The evidence stored in a pen drive found on the searched premises revealed that the builder group has taken an amount of ₹150 crore as on-money receipts over and above the agreement value, which is not accounted for in the books of accounts on sale of such units,” said the Department.
The agency has also come across evidence about on-money receipts of ₹70 crore related to a residential-cum-commercial project.
“In respect of the dealers engaged in the business of mobile accessories, various incriminating evidence has been found pertaining to out-of-books sales. The group imports goods from China and sells these goods to various parties all over India. The imports are under-invoiced and payments are made through the ‘hawala’ channels,” the Income-Tax Department said.
In all, 13 secret godowns containing unaccounted stock have been discovered, wherein the stock is being inventorised and valuation is in progress.
The agency has also found evidence of unaccounted investments by the dealers, amounting to ₹40.50 crore, of which investments to the tune of ₹21 crore are against the purchase of units in the commercial mall. “Four undisclosed bank accounts in the names of employees have also been detected, which are used to collect the sale proceeds from the retail vendors...the total deposits in the bank accounts amount to ₹80 crore,” said the agency.
According to the agency, the operation has revealed that the entire sector of trading in mobile accessories is largely unaccounted. The main components are imported from China through Mumbai and Chennai ports. The dealers undervalue the sales and purchases in a major way. The transactions with Chinese counterparts take place through the We-Chat App.
The Department, which seized ₹5.89 crore in unaccounted cash during the searches, has also retrieved the WeChat messages using forensics for a probe into the quantities and cost of Chinese imports, it said.
