Pakora seller surrenders Rs 60 lakh as tax to I-T department
LUDHIANA: When the Congress party had mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remark that selling ‘pakodas’ too was a form of self-employment, little did it know that a ‘pakora’ seller in Ludhiana would not only prove the PM right, but far exceed his expectations.
On Friday morning, Panna Singh pakorewala surrendered Rs 60 lakh to the Income Tax department, after a day-long survey conducted on Thursday. The action was taken by the Income Tax department on two outlets of this ‘pakorewala’ — one at Gill Road, and another at Model Town — after the former got specific inputs that the shop owner was suppressing his actual income.
During the survey — conducted under instructions from principal commissioner DS Chaudhary — teams of the I-T department not only scrutinized the financial records of the enterprise, but also checked its daily sale by keeping an officer stationed at the cash counter of both the outlets for the entire day on Thursday. Based on the daily sales of the outlets, the department calculated the approximate annual tax liability of the enterprise, and verified it with its income tax returns, and the tax deposited by them.
Though department officials remained tight-lipped about the action’s outcome, TOI managed to speak to Dev Raj, the owner of the ‘pakora’ shops, who confirmed he had surrendered Rs60 lakh to the department as his undisclosed income.
Established in 1952, Late Panna Singh set up a small ‘pakora’ shop at Gill Road, which became a household name years later, not only in Punjab but other states as well, for its special Paneer Pakora and Dahi Bhalla. His admirers include people from all walks of life — politicians, bureaucrats, police officials, and renowned businessmen.
Meanwhile, according to sources, in another action taken on Thursday by the department on a store in Miller Ganj dealing in dry fruits, the store surrendered Rs1 crore as its undisclosed income.
courtesy : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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FIR filed after e-commerce platform linked tech firm alleges SMS spoofing fraud
Bengaluru (PTI): An FIR has been registered against unknown people for allegedly sending fraudulent messages in the name of an e-commerce platform with promises of cash rewards, further disrupting its operations, police said on Wednesday.
The offence is said to have taken place between April 23 and April 27, they said.
A representative of city-based technology company Hiveloop Technology Pvt Ltd (HTPL), part of the Udaan group (eB2B platform), has lodged a complaint alleging a large-scale SMS spoofing fraud following which a detailed investigation has been initiated into the matter, a senior police officer said.
According to the FIR, HTPL is a registered entity on the TRAI-mandated DLT platform, which permits only pre-approved SMS templates and whitelisted URLs to be sent through authorised sender IDs.
The issue came to light on April 23, when HTPL received alerts from buyers about fraudulent SMS messages appearing to originate from the company's sender ID "UDAANN". The messages reportedly contained Bitly links and falsely claimed a credit of Rs 10,001, urging recipients to withdraw money, it said.
On April 27, at around 12:49 pm, the DLT platform blacklisted HTPL's SMS templates, citing their alleged use in sending fraudulent messages. Within minutes, the company's sender ID was also blacklisted. Airtel's DLT system subsequently confirmed the action and shared details of the fraudulent messages that were circulated in HTPL's name without its knowledge or consent, the FIR stated.
Following this, the company's messaging operations were affected, and even legitimate communications such as one-time passwords to buyers began failing. Later, the DLT operator suspended HTPL's entire account following complaints raised on TRAI's Chakshu platform, bringing all SMS services of the company to a halt, it further stated.
HTPL has stated that neither it nor its authorised vendors sent the fraudulent messages. The links embedded in the messages reportedly redirected users to an online betting website, the FIR stated.
The company has claimed that the incident has resulted in a complete breakdown of SMS-based services, including buyer authentication, order updates and promotional communication, leading to significant financial losses.
At least 13 victims have been identified so far, with the possibility of more affected users. Victims were allegedly directed to an online betting platform, raising concerns of potential financial fraud, the FIR added.
