The Income Tax Department has exposed a colossal racket involving fraudulent claims of tax deductions and exemptions, particularly under the guise of donations to political parties. On Monday, the IT department conducted widespread raids on 200 locations across multiple states, including Uttar Pradesh.
The operation revealed the involvement of top officials and employees from multinational corporations (MNCs), public sector undertakings, various government bodies, educational institutions, and other enterprises in this extensive tax evasion scheme. In Uttar Pradesh, raids were specifically carried out in Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Varanasi, Amroha, Moradabad, Gonda, and Sultanpur. The majority of these actions targeted intermediaries, tax advocates, and chartered accountants. Official sources confirmed that these raids, executed after gathering intelligence from various ground-level sources and analyzing financial data using advanced AI tools, exposed a highly organized network run by ITR preparers and middlemen.
These individuals were filing returns with bogus claims for deductions and exemptions, with some even submitting false TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) returns to claim excessive refunds.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) stated that recent search and seizure operations in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh also uncovered similar instances of tax evasion and fraudulent exemption claims. The investigation highlighted widespread misuse of deductions under various heads, including house rent allowance, donations to political parties, interest on education loans, medical insurance, interest on housing loans, and electric vehicle purchases. Additionally, significant abuse was found in exemptions for donations to charitable or research organizations and treatments for severe illnesses like cancer.
In Sultanpur, the IT team apprehended primary teacher Ram Janam Yadav and later took teacher Vimlesh, working in Kurebhar block, for questioning. Both were interrogated for about eight hours at Ram Janam's residence. Sources indicate that fraudulent documents for filing income tax returns were recovered. It was revealed that Ram Janam Yadav had been involved for two decades in negotiating with ITR filers to submit fraudulent returns and reclaim deduction amounts. Similarly, in Gonda, a lawyer's office dealing with Income Tax and GST in Pure Shiva Bakhtawar on Belsar Road was investigated for 15 hours.
