The Income Tax (I-T) department has decided to re-assess the tax returns of over 50 high net-worth individuals who purchased costly jewellery from firms owned by absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi, official sources said on Saturday.
Officials said that the taxman decided to initiate the step after a number of people, it sent notices asking them to explain the source of income for purchase of the jewellery, denied any cash payment made by them to Nirav's firms.
Officials said the department has gathered documents that indicate that these buyers of high-end jewellery had split the total payment for diamond jewellery by paying a part through cheque or card (debit/credit) and the rest in cash.
In reply to the tax notices, most of the people said that they did not make any cash payment, but this version does not corroborate with the data obtained by the IT department vis-a-vis the sales made by Nirav's firms. It has been found from the company books that payments were received after splitting them into cash and cheque/card transactions, officials said, hence it is essential to re-assess the income tax returns (I-TRs) of these over 50 people beginning from the 2014-15 assessment year.
They said if discrepancies of concealed cash payments are found, the HNIs will be charged for tax evasion and action will be initiated. Some other such cases are under preliminary probe, the officials said. Nirav and his uncle Mehul Choksi are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI after it was detected that they allegedly cheated Punjab National Bank of more than Rs. 13,400 crore with the purported involvement of a few of its employees.
(With Agency Inputs)
