HYDERABAD: The Income Tax Department, which conducted a series of searches on three real estate firms in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka on January 5, detected unaccounted cash transactions to the tune of Rs 800 crore and also seized Rs 1.64 crore unaccounted cash.
According to the Income Tax Department, the three firms are engaged in the business of land development as well as construction activities in Kurnool and other rural areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. More than two dozen premises were covered during the search operations in several places, including Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa, Nandyal and Bellary.
During the searches, the department officials seized several incriminating documents, including handwritten agreements, digital data from a specialised software application and other electronic gadgets.
One of the assessee groups was found to have been using software that has been modified to eliminate the unaccounted cash and to record in the regular books of account the sale consideration that matches with registered sale price. These groups were found accepting cash over and above the registered value of the properties.