Benami business in petrol pumps
SHILLONG: Over Rs 2 crore was seized from businessmen in parts of the state by the investigation wing of Income Tax Department, North East, after raids on petrol pumps for carrying out benami business in the name of tribals on Friday night and Saturday morning .
Sources said on Saturday that the IT department carried out the swift and coordinated action and raided the houses of some businessmen in the state allegedly involved in running petrol pumps managed and controlled as benami properties.
According to sources, the businessmen have allegedly cheated state authorities of legitimate revenue as well as the PSUs dealing in oil and indulged in massive evasion of income tax.
The raid that commenced in the early hours of Friday went on till the wee hours on Saturday.
Sources said more than 50 IT sleuths, including teams from headquarters of investigation wing in Guwahati, took part in the operation.
In the raid, besides more than Rs 2 crore, incriminating documents were also recovered by the IT officials.
The action by the Directorate of Investigation of Income Tax, North East has exposed long existing racket by some unscrupulous businessmen who have been exploiting local citizens of Meghalaya and running petrol pumps to avoid paying income tax in the name of income tax exemption provision enjoyed by the tribals.
Sources said that the raids were conducted in Shillong, Jowai and Nongpoh besides other paces. The benami transaction in other fields is nothing new for Meghalaya as it is thriving despite several laws revealing collusion between the indigenous people and their non-tribal business partners.
Earlier in May this year, the Income Tax officials had carried out an awareness programme with the civil society members and headmen in the city to put an end to benami transactions.
The IT department had issued notices to depositors to own up the deposits with basic evidences of their tribal status, source of income and evidence of earning within the tribal area.
An easy format was provided in the notices to fulfill the compliance
The IT officials wanted the depositors to formally own up and explain the source of their income as the officials will have no other choice than to tax such deposits as unexplained income.