‘Faceless’ income-tax asks Madhya Pradesh youth to pay Rs 113 crore as tax
Bhopal, Apr 6, 2023
A man from MP’s Bhind, who has a salary of Rs 58,000 a month, has received yet another notice from the income-tax department to deposit a whopping Rs 113 crore as taxes for alleged transactions of Rs 132 crore that were reportedly carried out in his account in 2011-12.
This, despite an inquiry initiated by none other than the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took notice of Ravi Gupta’s plight after TOI’s first report on his case in 2020. Gupta has since filed complaints with ED and CBI and wonders why they are not investigating it although more such cases have surfaced.
Gupta, 30, was left reeling when he received his first notice from the I-T department in 2019, demanding Rs 3.49 crore as penalty for 2011-12. He says he was working with a BPO in Indore in that period, drawing a monthly salary of just Rs 7,000.
After the TOI report in January 2020, the PMO referred the case to the finance ministry, which was routed to the bank by the Reserve Bank of India. The bank submitted a report clearing Gupta. But when the fresh notice was served on April 28, through the I-T department’s ‘faceless proceedings’, Gupta was in a state of utter disbelief.
For the last five years, he has been tirelessly approaching central agencies in a desperate attempt to get his name cleared. “Why aren’t federal agencies taking up my complaint as this seems to be a major money laundering case? These notices are no less than mental harassment for me. There may be many others like me. I don’t know when and where this will stop,” Gupta told TOI, adding that there is a pattern to this as he has come across similar cases.
Two of his colleagues from the same BPO — Kapil Shukla and Khandwa’s Praveen Rathore — have received similar I-T notices for 2011-12. Transactions of Rs 290 crore were made through an account opened in the name of Rathore by using his PAN card. Three transactions of Rs 95 crore, Rs 47 crore and Rs 25 lakh were made from the account in Gupta’s name by a diamond firm.
The three complainants have been served with tax inquiries relating to transactions of Rs 564 crore. All of the accounts under scrutiny were opened at the same bank branch in Mumbai. Names of certain companies to which money was transferred appear on the bank statements of Gupta and Shukla.
Gupta pointed out a case in Rajasthan on Monday where a disabled youth, running a small stationery shop in Bhilwara, was left in shock after receiving an income tax notice of more than Rs 12.2 crore. The notice sent to Krishna Gopal Chhaparwal, who makes Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 a month, said that two other companies were registered in his name in Surat.
Gupta, who says his PAN number was used by someone else to open a business account, remarked: “So, it’s Surat again and diamond traders, as it was with me, and two other victims from MP. There may be many more.”
[The Times of India]
