Taxmen are expected to soon get an ‘IT’ fillip in sniffing out unaccounted wealth. The income tax department has developed a ‘computer aided investigation tool’ that it claims can catch suspicious transactions in the books of accounts. “With the nodal centre operating the system at Mumbai, it will be soon rolled out in seven places. These include the directorate general of investigation ( DGIT) in Pune which covers Nagpur too,” said the member (investigation) and officiating chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Sudhir Chandra. He was in the city to attend a function at the National Academy of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

The system can point out anomalies in the accounts that can be further investigated by the sleuths. “For example, if the turnover of a company shows a sudden variation at any point of time, the system would catch the same. Even suspicious recording apart from the accounting entries can also found. If a receipt of a particular amount is shown in the trial balance or any other account, and somewhere in the narration or the notes a higher amount is mentioned, the anomaly will pop up,” said Chandra.

However, he admitted that this year search and seizure activities had taken a hit on account of ongoing strike by the Class III employees who are not cooperating with the officers. The problem is expected to be resolved soon, he said. “For the first time, the Indian Revenue Service ( IRS) cadre officials are also undertaking assignments which the striking employees do in the normal course. Despite it, they have to limit their operations to such cases where not many premises have to be covered, as manpower remains a constraint,” said Chandra.

The CBDT member said tax evasion to the tune of Rs 550 crore was found during the previous year. This included a number of interesting cases. In Bangalore, the taxmen had raided a group of businessmen selling stents used in heart surgeries at almost six to seven times the original cost. The stents which were imported for Rs 5,000 were supplied to the hospitals for Rs 30,000-Rs 35,000 and tax was evaded on the income too, he informed.