Hyderabad: A bullion company in Vijayawada called Rajani Gold, that sold Rs 32 crore worth of gold post-demonetisation has come to the notice of the Income-Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate. This comes quick on the heels of a probe into Hyderabad-based Musaddilal Jewellers for selling Rs 100 crore worth of gold on November 8.
The ED and I-T officers are scrutinising the records of gold transactions of Rajani Gold in Shivalayam Street in Vijayawada and also of Rayalaseema Bullion and Commtrade Pvt Ltd.
E. Chandar Rao of Rajani Jewellers said, “We always make high sales. I have sold Rs 32 crore worth of gold and this is all related to advances taken 10 days before the note cancellation. I am in this business for the past seven years. There are no bad remarks against me. On November 13, I paid an advance tax of Rs 2 lakh.”
Denying any fraud, he added, “As per government rules, for any sale above 50 grams, we take PAN card, Aadhaar card and other KYC details.
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I-T officials identified 30 jewellers for scrutiny
E. Chandar Rao of Rajani Jewellers said, “For below 50 grams we generate a bill and there is no need of KYC for Rs 2 lakh and above. ED sleuths have taken our bills and books. We get little margin in the business after all taxes are paid.”
He said he purchases gold from Mumbai-based bullion traders and Hyderabad-based CAPS Gold and others. “The government has been verifying several bullion traders and merchants. On Tuesday we came to know I-T sleuths went to Ongole to check jewellers.”
CAPS Gold of Hyderabad, which was surveyed by the I-T department, denied any abnormal sales after demonetisation.
Chand Venkatesh of CAPS Gold said, “It was a routine I-T survey. It is happening everywhere. We are all clean. There is nothing. There is no link to demonetisation. We are dealing with only high KYC customers.”
Rayalaseema Bullion and Commtrade, which operates in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana state and Tamil Nadu, also denied any irregularities.
Its director A. Ramakrishna Reddy said, “Ours is a normal business of '20 crore. I am a candidate for BJP MP and post-demonetisation we haven’t sold anything unusual. I submitted all the records of the company. Earlier we used to do '500 crore business, but for the last few years it has come down. Out of the total '20 crore sales, only around 30 per cent, which would be around '7 crore worth of gold, is sold to individual customers.”
The I-T department has identified 30 jewellers for scrutiny. A FIR has been booked in one case, of Musaddilal Jewellers.
