IT dept raids pvt hospital

Preliminary investigations revealed that the owner had been operating the hospital since the last eight years and had managed to conceal his real income. The raiding party recovered costly equipment from the hospital which the owner had not brought to the notice of the Income Tax department.

About Rs 5 lakh cash and fixed deposits worth Rs 15 lakhs were recovered from the hospital, besides costly medicare equipment whose estimated cost was being worked out, said officials. The raiding party later sealed the hospital. Simultaneously, following leads from the hospital, another party of the department was alerted and it raided a nursing home situated in the Makarpura area of Vadodara.

Sources said that during investigations the team found out that the nursing home had been registered in the name of the hospital owner’s wife. The team took into possession some documents related to the operation of the said nursing home. It is being alleged that the owner had also concealed the income accruing to him through the nursing home.

At the Balashinor hospital, departmental sources said that the owner was providing modern medicare facilities at the hospital and was catering to a sizable population in the Kheda district. “A large number of patients from the district used to visit the hospital as it used to provide necessary modern medicare facility,” an IT official said.

They alleged that the owner had for all these years hidden the exact number of patients visiting the hospital and had also undervalued the treatment cost. “On paper the owner used to show far less than what he was actually charging,” officials added. The IT department after collecting the documents, which included a set of registers which had separate account for official and unofficial use, were scrutinising the seizures in order to ensure a water-tight case, officials said.