New Delhi: The Income Tax department has begun a crackdown against black money being generated by the rich mining sector with the taxman initiating a detailed scrutiny of a number of such exploration and production companies across the country.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy-making body of the I-T department, has recently issued orders to all tax offices to check any "discrepancies" in the financial statements filed and actual operations conducted by these companies after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money took a serious view in this regard.
Sources privy to the development said a recent I-T investigation found that a number of discrepancies were found in the returns filed by some major firms involved in the mining of iron ore, manganese and others when their tax returns were compared with similar statements filed by them with the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), a mandatory procedure that has to be followed by these firms.
A number of these firms, sources said, had also figured in the Enquiry report of the Justice (retd) M B Shah Commission that was constituted by the government few years back to probe illegal mining in the country. An official order issued by the CBDT on October 14, also accessed by PTI, said, "Significant differences in figures regarding production and closing stock" between the IBM filed returns vis-a-vis their corresponding Income Tax statements were detected".
The CBDT subsequently asked the taxman to check all such instances in the country while scrutinising the cases of mining firms and barons and initiate action in terms of conducting special searches or audit of these businesses, even in cases if such discrepancies are noticed in previous years returns. "The orders are to obtain the data from IBM and in case suppression of production or irregularity in stock is seen action has to be initiated against erring mining companies.
The action has already begun," a senior official said. The SIT has also asked the Enforcement Directorate and CBI to see if they are required to initiate probe under the respective laws they enforce or function under.
The official said while all tax offices where mining companies are assessed have been asked to undertake thisexercise, the investigations wing of the department has been asked to undertake strict steps and check tax evasion and black money being generated through this illegal business.
The government and also the SIT have recently said investigative agencies should turn their focus on domestic areas from where huge black money is being generated and subsequently either is being laundered to create tainted assets or is being stashed overseas.
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