Visakhapatnam: All those having undisclosed and unaccounted money beware. Income Tax (IT) sleuths have readied special squad teams that will strike as soon as the Union government announced Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 ends this September 30. “If one wants to avoid prosecution for amassing unaccounted or black money better avail the scheme and approach the nearby Aayakar Bhavan (IT office) now. It is a fair chance to those who have undisclosed wealth. Disclose them under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016 and they gain immunity from any inquiry, prosecution or proceedings. On top of it, high-level secrecy will be maintained and the information will not be even shared with other Central government agencies also not even in the certain sections of our office. Department will take stringent action after September 30, 2016, against tax evaders as we already have information of evaders." said Principal Commissioner of Income Tax-1, Vizag region, B.G. Reddy.
As per the data accessed from multiple sources, Vizag region of the IT office that has jurisdiction over Vizag, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, and Kakinada town has an approximate 10,000 persons who have undisclosed wealth and evade tax put together it is suspected to be holding Rs 1,000 crore of black money from these three districts and Kakinada. Realtors, builders, jewellers and those into mining of various minerals and those into shipping business top the list of such persons. IT sleuths have accessed the information from multiple sources like sub-registrar offices, banks, and share transactions. Vizag region among others in 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh is leading in getting the unaccounted wealth declarations. It has been around three months that the Income Declaration Scheme 2016 has been announced in June and it will end in September.
Fear of being hounded and getting into legal tangle once assets are declared is being said to be stopping people from declaring their wealth. “The response is quite good when compared to other places in Andhra Pradesh. In fact, Vizag tops in the responses from those having undisclosed wealth. We have already got a good number of declarations. We get at least 15 to 20 inquiries daily on the scheme from those who wants to file the declarations. We have already served notices having the details of financial or property transactions to approximately close to 10,000 people in the three districts of north Andhra and Kakinada town,” B.G. Reddy told this correspondent. Mr Reddy added that as per the latest communication to Vizag office from Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) the scheme will not be extended beyond this September.
