The Income Tax Department conducted a search and survey operation in connection with leading coal traders of Assam, on allegations that the group indulged in out-of-books transactions involving over ₹150 crore.
In all, 21 locations in Guwahati, Digboi, Margherita and Delhi were covered since December 4. The main charges against the group were that it routed accommodation entries of over ₹23 crore and ₹62 crore in the form of non-genuine share capital and non-genuine unsecured loans through certain Kolkata-based shell companies. This was done by suppressing the net profit.
“Handwritten documents/diaries regarding cash transactions have been recovered, which are not reflected in the regular books of accounts. Such transactions detected so far across all the locations combined is upwards of ₹150 crore, of which payments made of a total of more than ₹100 crore have been found to be violative of various sections of the Income-Tax Act,” said the Department in a note.
It is alleged that loan transactions of over ₹10 crore were made in cash. Stock difference of more than ₹7 crore was also found.
“Unexplained cash of about ₹3.53 crore has also been found during the search, which has been seized by the Department. Cash investments in share capital during demonetisation period were also detected,” said the agency.
