BHUBANESWAR: The Income Tax Department has initiated strong action against tax defaulters who are causing loss of crores of rupees to the exchequer either by not depositing tax deducted at source (TDS) in time or not depositing at all.In a release issued here on Thursday, the Department said the deducted money is being diverted by the deductors for the purpose of their business which is illegal as per the Income Tax Act, 1961. The department has conducted several surveys in the case of companies in the steel sector, contractors and real estate companies where evidence of such defaults running into several crores of rupees have been detected.
The department maintained that cases have been filed against more than 100 defaulters in Odisha. In order to avoid prosecution, more than 30 defaulters have come forward for compounding the offence by paying penalty as per the Income Tax Act. Besides, the department has also initiated all possible measures like attachment of bank accounts, attachment of accounts of debtors and other coercive action for recovery of the collected money.
The release said it has been noticed by the TDS wing of Income Tax department that false declaration under Section 194 C (6) of IT Act has been filed by some transporters dealing with top industries, mining companies and other entities both in government and non-government sectors where huge transportation expenses are involved. The department maintained that a list of such defaulters are being updated to initiate action against them.
Besides, the Income Tax department has decided to initiate strong action against companies and individuals who deposited more than `20 lakh after demonetisation on Novemner 8, 2016, but have not filed returns.Department sources said, in Odisha more than `1 crore was deposited during demonetisation in 137 cases and more than `20 lakh was deposited in 3593 cases. Out of these, income tax return was not filed in 2460 cases against which the Income Tax department is contemplating strong action.