Raids on stars were based on tip-off

BENGALURU:  Following searches conducted by the Income-Tax Department officials on members of Kannada film industry, the Department has decided to call a meeting of representatives from the film industry to ensure better tax compliance.

Addressing a press meet, Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) BR Balakrishnan said that the raids were collected after gathering credible information on tax evasion by the accused. "There are several actors whose income tax returns did not reflect the remuneration received by them," he said.  Among the violations reported included suppression of theatre ticket collection receipts, irregularities in declaring production expenditure and others.

To a question on high budget movies, R Ravichandran, Principal Director of Income Tax, said that preliminary investigation of the books showed that there was a difference between the actual expenditure for a film and the publicised expenditure.  

‘Due process will follow in DKS case’
On raids conducted on Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar, Balakrishna said that they had recently questioned him and due process would follow in the coming days. He refused to divulge details regarding the progress of the case and whether his property was attached. According to a release issued by the Department, the Karnataka and Goa region had   made total seizures of ` 78 crore.