CHENNAI: Income Tax officials have detected unaccounted cash worth hundreds of crores of rupees during searches at the offices of two educational groups in the city. Claiming that the searches have got nothing to do with politics, sources highlighted that the educational groups have been evading taxes while collecting huge sums as fees from the students.
Talking to TNIE, they said Rs 20 crore cash and several kilogrammes of gold were detected from both the educational groups during the searches, which were launched three days ago. “We found a huge cache of fee receipts that were not accounted for. Even a huge quantity of gold jewellery was found during the searches,” they added.
During the searches, the income tax department sleuths also found that a huge amount of cash was diverted from the trusts of the institutions. The officials said the tax evasion which is considered to be huge is currently being scrutinised.
“We are currently scrutinising the tax evasion, which is likely to run to several hundreds of crores of rupees,” sources said, adding the search is continuing in both groups. In the past as well, various educational institutions have been searched and the department had seized a huge amount of unaccounted cash. Sources said that the searches on the premises of government contractor Chennai Radha Engineering had resulted in seizing cash worth Rs 15 crore.
Cash diversion
During the searches, the income tax department sleuths also found that a huge amount of cash was diverted from the trusts of the institutions. The officials said the tax evasion which is considered to be huge is currently being scrutinised