I-T dept unearths suppression of sales worth Rs 1,000 crore by Saravana group
CHENNAI: The Income Tax Department on Tuesday said that searches being conducted at Saravana Super Stores and Saravana Selvarathnam groups — engaged in the retail sales of jewellery, textiles and home appliances through their popular chain of outlets in Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai and Tirunelveli — have resulted in the seizure of Rs 10 crore in cash and jewellery worth about Rs 6 crore.
The department, which searched a total of 37 premises in four cities of the State on December 1, said that while searching the premises of one of the groups (without naming them), it was found that the assessee had been actively involved in systematically suppressing sales by manipulating their books of accounts.
The extent of suppression of sales was found to be more than Rs 1,000 crore over several years, the department said. It was also found that the group made unaccounted cash purchases of about Rs 150 crore in the textiles and jewellery divisions in the past few years.
Bogus bills obtained
Similarly, during the searches carried out on the second group, incriminating material seized revealed that the assessee group had obtained bogus bills from a set of parties to the tune of Rs 80 crore and thereby suppressed its taxable income.
Evidence relating to the unaccounted purchase of gold has also been gathered. Besides, the assessee group was found to be debiting inflated making charges of jewellery, the Income Tax department said here on Tuesday. In addition, unaccounted rental receipts and unaccounted scrap sales aggregating to Rs 7 crore have been detected.
Manipulating books
The department, which searched 37 premises in four cities of the State on December 1, said that while searching the premises of one of the groups, it was found that the assessee had been actively involved in systematically suppressing sales