The Income Tax department on Wednesday conducted nation wide searches on 130 premises of prominent southern jewellery chain Joyalukkas, and a firm connected with it. Apart from it, reports claim that showrooms of another Kerala based jewellery chain were raided by the IT officials. The raids were both carried out in showrooms and other premises of these jewellery chains.

These 130 premises were raided in prominent cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Thrissur and encompassed states like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal.

The reason for this raid is speculated to be an effort to uncover alleged tax evasion post demonetisation.

During the raids the shops were shut and the staff wasn’t allowed inside the showrooms. The report claimed that, the raid focused on allegations of the firms suppressing sales and large scale cash deposits.

- Advertisement -

Joyalukkas was also in trouble in January, 2017 when it was found the jewellery chain hadn’t paid the mandatory 1% central excise duty for about Rs 1,500 crore worth of gold jewellery sold. The evasion amounted to about Rs 16 crores.

This raid by Income Tax official comes after a series of measures the department has taken post demonetisation.

It was reported that the Income Tax Department had slapped notices on 1.16 lakh individuals and firms, who made cash deposits of more than Rs 25 lakh in bank accounts post note ban but failed to file returns by the due date.

IT Department had also issued detailed guidelines to tax officers, which are to be considered while ordering scrutiny assessments pertaining to filing of revised/belated returns by assessees, post-demonetisation period.

In the form of a tangible return, the war on black money has resulted in a 22% jump on the number of people paying their income tax. What makes this jump more substantial is the fact that these taxpayers account for just 3% of the Indian population.