Vegetable traders come under IT scanner in TN
As skyrocketing prices of vegetables caused concern, ten big vegetable traders in Tamil Nadu have come under the Income Tax Department’s lens over huge profits made by them, with the department carrying out state-wide “survey operations” against them.
“In this operation, ten big vegetable traders are covered and they are being questioned about the profit earned in their business especially due to increase in prices and investments made by them in the recent times,” S Ravichandran, Additional Director, I-T (Investigation), Chennai, said.
The ongoing “survey operations” were based on information that many of the vegetable traders were making huge profit due to increase in prices of vegetables, he said in an official release here.
The operations were still continuing in Chennai, Pollachi, Tiruchirappalli, Dindigul and Madurai, he added.
IT dept swoops down on ‘commodity hoarders’
Income Tax Department carried out survey operations of over 10 wholesale vegetable merchants across Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Chandigarh in a move to check commodity hoarding in the wake of soaring onion prices.
“The survey operations, which commenced yesterday, are primarily aimed to check profiteering made by hoarders of vegetables,” a senior official of Income Tax Department (Investigation Wing) said here today.
Though the surveys were still going, the IT sleuths said they are investigating the records and books of accounts of these traders to ascertain the mismatch between physical stocks of goods and stocks maintained in account books.
However, the department refused to divulge much about the ongoing operations.
Income Tax department officials swooped down on vegetable merchants in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Faridabad and Jammu and Kashmir simultaneously.
I-T surveys on Delhi premises of UP onion traders
The Income Tax Department today conducted survey operations on city-based business premises of onion traders from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to detect hoarding and illegal profiteering.
Sources said the surveys were carried out on the premises of those traders who were searched by the department in Uttar Pradesh yesterday.
“There were no searches on any trader from Delhi but surveys were conducted on the city premises of some traders from the neighbouring state,” they said.
I-T officials had raided premises of wholesale onion dealers in Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Meerut and other places of the state yesterday.
Similar operations were carried out at over 10 wholesale merchants across Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Chandigarh in a move to check hoarding.
More raids on onion traders by I-T deptt in the offing
The Income Tax Department today surveyed business premises of some Uttar Pradesh traders here and said it will carry out a series of raids on big onion traders across the country in the coming days to detect hoarding and illegal profiteering.
Department sources said they conducted survey operations on city-based premises of onion traders from neighbouring UP.
The sources said the surveys were carried out on the premises of those traders who were searched by the department in Uttar Pradesh yesterday.
However, fresh raids will focus on major onion traders across the country.
“There were no searches on any trader from Delhi but surveys were conducted on the city premises of some traders from the neighbouring state. Fresh operations will focus on major onion traders across the country,” they said.
IT search in Delhi, NCR to detect onion hoarding
The Income Tax department today surveyed business premises of big onion and vegetable traders including at Azadpur wholesale market here to detect hoarding and illegal profiteering.
IT sources said the officials of the I-T department began an early morning operation of checking and obtaining the account books and ledgers of large wholesale onion traders based in Delhi and NCR.
The department’s action was to crackdown on hoarding and over-valuation of onion stocks, they said.
The I-T department had last week conducted similar survey operations in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and few other states.
Meanwhile, traders in Maharashtra’s Nashik and adjoining onion-growing areas today went on two-day strike against I-T raids and disrupted supply to traders from other states who are being forced to sell the vegetable at “below the cost price”.
