Income Tax to intensify crackdown on tax defaulters

NEW DELHI:  Struggling to achieve the revenue target, the Income Tax (I-T) department is planning to intensify its drive against tax defaulters. It will target small businesses and high net worth individuals after big corporate houses suspected of evading taxes.“Last few weeks had been very crucial and we have orders to come down heavily on those who are evading tax, while protecting honest taxpayers. We have a list of 400 small businesses and some high net worth individuals which we will investigate in coming weeks,” a senior official, Income Tax department, told this publication.

The official claimed that the list of small businesses had been prepared using data analytics by matching invoices from the GST returns. The Income Tax department last week conducted raids on a famous hotel brand and claimed to discover foreign assets of over Rs 1,000 crore and unaccounted domestic assets worth Rs 25 crore. The department also conducted raid on a Chennai-based educational group.

The officials claimed that they have found unauthorised income worth Rs 7,000 crore in last two months. Direct tax revenues — Corporation Income Tax and Personal Income Tax — together according to the Budget estimate has been pegged at Rs 13.35 lakh crore, which is 16 per cent higher than the Budget estimate (Rs 11.50 lakh crore) and 11.25 per cent higher than the revised estimate (Rs 12 lakh crore).