Top

Kerala: Five top tax officials suspended

The documents showed total sales of nearly Rs 200 crore, but only Rs 64 crore has been taxed by the Sales Tax Department.

Thiruvananthapuram: In an unprecedented move, five senior commercial sales tax officials - three deputy commissioners, one assistant commissioner and a sales tax official - were suspended on Saturday after they were found prima facie guilty of conspiring to suppress the sales of one of the state’s leading jeweller. A preliminary enquiry was conducted after tax sleuths had recently detected an accounting anomaly in the 2013-14 sales figures of the Adoor branch of Bhima Jewellers.

The sales details were in the hard disk confiscated from the jewelers by the Intelligence Bureau in 2013-14, during the UDF tenure. The documents showed total sales of nearly Rs 200 crore, but only Rs 64 crore has been taxed by the Sales Tax Department. “When the jewelers were contacted they said only Rs 64 crore worth jewellery was sold in the state, and claimed that the rest of the sales had occurred in their showrooms in Tamil Nadu,” a top tax official said.

“We then cross-checked with the Tamil Nadu tax department and found that there were no figures that matched the sales shown in the hard disk,” the official added. At least three of the officials suspended are known for their integrity, and one was not even a year into service. “This has given rise to the suspicion that they could have been forced to favour the jeweler by higher-ups, probably politicians,” the tax official said. "Only an detailed enquiry will bring out the truth," he added.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
Next Story