The Income Tax Department has raided 23 premises connected to a multi crore tax evasion by a leading diamond manufacturer and exporter from Gujarat. A large volume of unaccounted data has been seized. The search and seizure operations covered 23 premises located in Surat, Navsari, Morbi, Wankaner in Gujarat and Mumbai in Maharastra.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a statement said the raid teams seized paper as well as digital data, kept at secret locations under the custody of its trusted employees, that includes proof of unaccounted purchases and sales, accommodation entries (obtaining illegal business entries in accounts) for purchases against which cash is received, the movement of such cash and stock through angadia firms, keeping the unaccounted cash with angadias, investment of such unaccounted income for purchase of property and stock etc. for the last five years.
It said the primary analysis of data reveals that the assessee has made unaccounted purchase and sale of small polished diamonds of about Rs 518 crore over a period. “The data reveals that the assesse has sold more than Rs 95 crore of diamond scrap in cash generated from its manufacturing activities, which remains unaccounted for and represents its income,” the CBDT said. “The assesse, over the years, has accounted for the sale of about Rs 2,742 crore of small diamonds in its books, against which, substantial part of purchases were made in cash, but the purchase bills were taken from accommodation entry providers.”
The CBDT said unaccounted cash and jewellery worth Rs 1.95 crore has been seized during the raids and unaccounted diamond stock of 8,900 carat worth Rs 10.98 crore has been detected. “A large number of lockers belonging to the group have been identified, which have been placed under restraint and will be operated in due course,” it said. “The data reveals that the assesse has made purchases of Rs 189 crore and sale of Rs 1,040 crore in the last two years through this entity. Financial transactions of real estate deals were found which led to the detection of unaccounted income of Rs 80 crore.”
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Moreover, the policy-making body for the tax department said the group was making its major purchases of rough diamonds through imports and making export sales of finished bigger diamonds through its company registered in Hong Kong, which is effectively controlled and managed from India only.
