I-T seizes cash, gold & foreign currency from raids on Bengaluru’s fertility expert & labs
ET Bureau|
Updated: Dec 02, 2017, 08.00 PM IST
BENGALURU: The Investigation wing of the Income Tax department in Bengaluru on Saturday said it has seized vast amounts of cash, jewellery, bullion and foreign currency and detected secret foreign bank accounts from searches conducted on two IVF clinics/doctors and five medical diagnostic centres.
The searches were conducted over the last three days, the DG of Income Tax (Investigation) said in a press release. The raids were conducted on a well-known fertility expert in Bengaluru.
The I-T sleuths seized cash of about Rs 1.4 crore, jewellery and bullion in excess of 3.5 kg, a significant amount of foreign currency and detection of secret foreign bank accounts with deposits running into crores of rupees.
The searches in the five medical diagnostic centres resulted in establishing the various methods whereby doctors are paid for referring medical tests. The commission varied from lab to lab but the median range of normal ‘cuts’/commission for doctors is 35% in case of MRI tests and 20% in case of CT scan and other LAB tests. These payments are found to be disguised as marketing expenses, the statement said.
It added: “The payment of referral fees to doctors is found to be made in four different ways: a. Cash payments made on a fortnightly basis.
b. Advance in cash paid to the doctors as a kind of imprest cash from which the actual referral fees payable is adjusted. The advance is again recouped on a fortnightly basis. c. In some cases, referral fees paid to doctors in cheque is disguised and shown in books as professional fees. In this kind of cases, an agreement with doctors is made by which they are taken as inhouse consultants. However, they neither come to Diagnostic centres nor see the patients or write reports. This payment is a disguised referral fee. d. There are even some revenue sharing agreements with some doctors by which referral fee is paid in cheques."
According to the Director General of IT, some of the labs employ commission agents whose job is to distribute money to doctors in envelopes.These agents insert a small chit is inserted in these envelopes, while giving it to doctors, which contain the details names of the patient referred by the doctor, doctor’s name, tests done, amounts billed against the tests, and ‘cuts’/commission amount to be given to the doctor and the date on which the test was done. It is seen that the doctors are very particular about the amounts: where they don’t get their “due” they return the envelope. The dispute is later settled with the labs.
“While the labs searched have declared previously undisclosed income which so far exceeds Rs 100 crore, the amount of referral fee in the case of a single lab exceeds Rs 200 crore.”
The searches were conducted over the last three days, the DG of Income Tax (Investigation) said in a press release. The raids were conducted on a well-known fertility expert in Bengaluru.
The I-T sleuths seized cash of about Rs 1.4 crore, jewellery and bullion in excess of 3.5 kg, a significant amount of foreign currency and detection of secret foreign bank accounts with deposits running into crores of rupees.
The searches in the five medical diagnostic centres resulted in establishing the various methods whereby doctors are paid for referring medical tests. The commission varied from lab to lab but the median range of normal ‘cuts’/commission for doctors is 35% in case of MRI tests and 20% in case of CT scan and other LAB tests. These payments are found to be disguised as marketing expenses, the statement said.
It added: “The payment of referral fees to doctors is found to be made in four different ways: a. Cash payments made on a fortnightly basis.
b. Advance in cash paid to the doctors as a kind of imprest cash from which the actual referral fees payable is adjusted. The advance is again recouped on a fortnightly basis. c. In some cases, referral fees paid to doctors in cheque is disguised and shown in books as professional fees. In this kind of cases, an agreement with doctors is made by which they are taken as inhouse consultants. However, they neither come to Diagnostic centres nor see the patients or write reports. This payment is a disguised referral fee. d. There are even some revenue sharing agreements with some doctors by which referral fee is paid in cheques."
According to the Director General of IT, some of the labs employ commission agents whose job is to distribute money to doctors in envelopes.These agents insert a small chit is inserted in these envelopes, while giving it to doctors, which contain the details names of the patient referred by the doctor, doctor’s name, tests done, amounts billed against the tests, and ‘cuts’/commission amount to be given to the doctor and the date on which the test was done. It is seen that the doctors are very particular about the amounts: where they don’t get their “due” they return the envelope. The dispute is later settled with the labs.
“While the labs searched have declared previously undisclosed income which so far exceeds Rs 100 crore, the amount of referral fee in the case of a single lab exceeds Rs 200 crore.”
