Excise raids reveal Rs 50 crore duty evasion by 3 Tamil Nadu jewellers

Chennai: Evasion of central excise duty to the tune of Rs 50 crore allegedly by three leading jewellers in Tamil Nadu has come to the fore during raids at multiple locations over the last three days.

Following intelligence inputs, directorate of central excise Intelligence sleuths carried out simultaneous searches at the premises of the three jewellers in nine cities between December 26 and 29, a top central excise official said on Thursday.

The cities where the raids were conducted included Chennai, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Thrissur, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and New Delhi and as regards one of the firms, the raids were still on, he added.

One of the leading jewellery outlets operating in Tamil Nadu with branches across the country alone has evaded central excise duty to the tune of Rs 40 crore and immediately after the raids, it paid duty of Rs 12 crore. As regards another jewellery where search operations were currently on, “(raids) indicate duty evasion to the tune of Rs 14 crore and further inputs are awaited”, he said. The third jewellery retailer had not paid excise duty to the tune of Rs 5 crore.