The taxman has sharpened the crackdown of money laundering in Bengaluru. On Friday, Income Tax officials searched the premises of four jewellery and bullion traders in the city and detected undeclared income worth Rs 47.74 crore, the Times of India reported.
Acting on a tip-off that the jewellery shop owners and bullion traders were exchanging demonetized Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes for gold and bullion, the raids were conducted, the report said.
Upon conducting the search operation, it was also revealed that sales at these premises had gone up since demonetization in November, compared to the sales in the corresponding last year, the report adds.
It was also revealed that these jewelers backdated their bills and even paid VAT to make the transactions look genuine as the sales against cash had gone up in October, the TOI reported.
All transactions were kept below Rs 2 lakh and the bills had no information about the customers who allegedly made the purchases, the report adds.
This was apparently done to avoid TDS and mandatory quoting of the purchasers' PAN and in some cases the sales had been suppressed in previous years, the reports said.
Some jewelers had also not filed income tax returns for the last several years, it added.
Soon after the Centre announced the demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, the I-T department also conducted raids on jewellery shops accepting demonetised notes in lieu of high-priced gold.
Surveys conducted on a leading jeweller at their three branches and corporate office in Bengaluru on November 10, led to detection of a difference of stock of Rs 11 crore, the New Indian Express had reported.
The I-T department had also conducted a nation-wide search on jewellery after demonetization, TNIE report stated.