Income Tax dept rejects declarations by Mahesh Shah, Mumbai family as ‘false’; probe begins

In a statement, the income tax department said: “The department has commenced enquiries against these declarants to determine the intention behind these false declarations.” The department had not taken on record these two sets of declarations after finding these to be suspicious and filed by persons of small means.

The Rs 2 lakh crore declaration was made by a family of four — Abdul Razzaque Mohammed Sayed, his son, wife and sister. They were shown as residents of Bandra, Mumbai. “Three out of the four PAN numbers were originally in Ajmer which were migrated to Mumbai in September 2016, where the declarations were filed,” the I-T department said.

The department had kept these two declarations from Mumbai and Ahmedabad pending for investigation about their genuineness and not included in the total value of declarations announced on October 1. “After due enquiry it was found that these declarants were persons of suspicious nature and very small means and the declarations could have been misused,” it said.

Meanwhile, the department also revised the actual declarations received to Rs 67,382 crore (estimated at Rs 65,250 crore earlier) from 71,726 declarants. This means, the amount disclosed per person is less than Rs 1 crore. To be precise, Rs 93.94 lakh.

The revised figure will fetch government a little over Rs 30,000 crore direct tax revenue.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram in a tweet said: “There is a Rs 13,860 crore hole in the Rs 65,000 crore IDS! How many more holes.”

IDS was announced in the Budget under which declaration of undisclosed income or asset could be made by agreeing to pay 45 per cent of the declared amount as tax, surcharge and penalty. The declaration widow of four-month ended on September 30. Now on the final declarations, the government will get Rs 30,321.9 crore in tax and penalty. WITH PTI