In Uttar Pradesh, the news of very ordinary and poor people becoming millionaires often leaves people surprised. These people are found in the middle of the market or on the road with selling chaat, crispy-kachori, chai-samosa, and paan shops. Traders who have been doing such work for many years without taking the FSSAI certificate assuring food safety, wrap up the goods on the arrival of the police and committee. This time, the city of Kanpur is in the headlines for such matters, where not one or two but more than 250 such millionaires have come out in the open.
In the list of such people, even the small grocery store owners and chemists are millionaires. After the latest revelations, it can be assumed that even a person who sells fruits standing at the turn of your locality can be a millionaire. This is because, in the investigation of the Income Tax Department, some fruit vendors have also been found to be millionaires and owners of hundreds of acres of good cultivable land.
Property worth crores near scrap dealer
You might have a car and face a problem in paying EMI during the coronavirus period, but when it comes to these riches of Kanpur, even the scrap dealers have been found to own three cars. Such rich people neither pay a hefty tax in the name of Income Tax nor do they have any relation with GST. One in the Lalbangla area of the city and two scrap dealers in Bekonganj bought three properties worth more than Rs 10 crore in two years.
The Income Tax Department had been keeping an eye on these hidden 'Dhannaseths', who looked poor. In the investigation of the Income Tax Department and GST registration, 256 sellers have come out as crorepatis. When their details were probed with the help of data software and other technical tools, the officials of the IT department were stunned.
'Property game of 400 crores in four years
According to the report published in Hindustan, these traders did not pay a single penny of tax outside the GST registration, but in four years, property worth more than Rs 375 crore was purchased. These properties were bought in very expensive commercial areas like Aryanagar, Swaroop Nagar, Birhana Road, Hulaganj, Pirod, Gumti. Properties were also bought in South Kanpur. KVP worth more than 30 crores was also purchased, along with 650 bighas of agricultural land.
The owners of two paan shops in Aryanagar, one in Swaroop Nagar, and two in Birhana Road have bought properties worth Rs 5 crore during the coronavirus period. A snack seller from Mallroad is paying Rs.1.25 lakh as rent every month on different carts. On the other hand, two people of Swaroop Nagar, Hulaganj bought two buildings, while the chaat sellers of Birhana Road, Mall Road, P Road invested a lot on the land.
Tax evasion caught in this way too
The number of small grocery store owners and chemists outside the GST registration who have earned crores of rupees is more than 65. Some people resorted to cooperative banks and small finance schemes to hide this money from government eyes, while many people invested most of the property in the name of their brother, sister, sister-in-law, uncles. These people made the mistake of putting their PAN number in government documents. As soon as PAN card and Aadhar were discovered in only one property, their secrets came out.
Earlier, such riches were exposed in some cities of western Uttar Pradesh. But this is probably the first case when so many people have been caught together. In the year 2019, a very shocking case came to light in Aligarh. In the investigation, the team of the Commercial Tax Department had revealed the case of a small snack trader having an annual turnover of Rs 60 lakhs.
