IT dept raids on Bengaluru liquor company leads to over Rs 870-cr blackmoney
New Delhi, Feb 11: The Income Tax Department has detected undisclosed income of over Rs 870 crore after it raided a "major" Bengaluru-based liquor manufacturing group, the CBDT said on Thursday.
The searches were carried out on February 9 at 26 locations across the country.
"In all, the search and seizure action has resulted in the detection of total undisclosed income of Rs 878.82 crore," a statement issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said.
"This group has a huge land bank which is being developed into residential and commercial properties with a builder based in Bengaluru," it said.
"The searches have resulted in detecting incriminating evidences relating to concealment of income of more than Rs 692.82 crore on account of joint development projects with a major builder based in Bengaluru," it said.
The group companies have "fraudulently" claimed expenses amounting to Rs 86 crore.
"In respect of their liquor business, unaccounted sales amounting to Rs 74 crore have been detected from one of their liquor manufacturing plants based in Kerala. The group companies have also claimed bogus expenses of Rs 17 crore in their business entities," it said.
The directors of the group have incurred unexplained expenditure of Rs 9 crore attracting the provisions of Section 69C (when expenditure is deemed to be the income of the assessee, no allowance of the same can be claimed as business expenditure) of the Income-tax Act, it claimed.
"There are large number of investments made in benami properties in the names of their employees and associates for several years," the statement said.
The CBDT said a total of 35 "suspected benami properties" in the names of the relatives of the promoters of the group and associates, valued at more than Rs 150 crore, have been identified.
There are also evidences of foreign assets in the name of a director of the group company, it added.
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SC to hear on May 4 PIL seeking stringent guidelines for issuing Aadhaar to adolescents, adults
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking a direction to the Unique Identification Authority of India to issue new Aadhaar cards only to citizens up to the age of six years, and frame stringent guidelines for its issuance to adolescents and adults to stop infiltrators from masquerading as Indian citizens.
As per the apex court's causelist of May 4, the plea would come up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has also sought a direction to the authorities to install display boards at common service centres stating that the 12-digit unique identification number is only a "proof of identity" and not a proof of citizenship, address or date of birth.
Besides all the states and Union Territories, the plea has made the UIDAI -- which is the authority that issues Aadhaar -- and the Union ministries of home, law and justice, and electronics and information technology as parties.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, said Aadhaar, originally intended as a proof of identity, has increasingly become a "foundational document" enabling individuals to obtain other identification documents, such as ration cards, domicile certificates and voter identity cards.
"The UIDAI has issued 144 crore Aadhaar and 99 percent Indians have been enrolled. Therefore, the petitioner is filing this writ petition as a PIL under Article 32, seeking a direction to UIDAI to issue new Aadhaar to children only and frame new stringent guidelines for adolescents and adults, so as to stop infiltrators from getting it and masquerading as Indian citizens," the plea said.
It said the need to file the plea arose when the petitioner came to know the manner in which infiltrators are able to procure Aadhaar through a verification process that is weak and can be easily manipulated.
"Foreigners apply for Aadhaar under the 'foreign' category. But infiltrators apply for Aadhaar under the 'Indian citizen' category and get it easily made. Thereafter, they obtain a ration card, birth and domicile certificate, driving licence, et cetera, essentially becoming indistinguishable from Indian citizens…," it said.
Besides seeking other directions, the plea has raised legal questions, including whether the Aadhaar Act 2016 has become "temporally unreasonable" for failing to keep up with the legislative intent of distinguishing foreigners from Indian citizens.
It said the alleged misuse of Aadhaar undermines targeted welfare delivery and leads to diversion of public resources.
