A day after raids were conducted at the premises of eight tobacco manufacturing companies here, the Commercial Tax Department has pegged tax evasion by them to the tune of Rs 150 crore besides an unaudited turnover of Rs 900 crore.
“These companies have collectively evaded Rs 150 crore in payment of commercial tax and a total turnover of Rs 900 crore has been unaccounted in the last eleven months,” Additional Commissioner, Special Investigation Cell of the Commercial Tax Department, Shatrughna Upadhyaya said today.
His department would recover around Rs 450 crore in penalties from the companies, he said.
Sources said the UP government is also mulling to slap a hefty fine on them.
The Department of Commercial Tax yesterday raided the tobacco manufacturing units of eight companies – Pan Parag, Sikhar, Sir, Kesar, Sanjog, Tiranga, Talab, and Wah, located in different areas of the city to investigate charges of evading taxes worth crores of rupees.
Upadhyaya said his department has “unearthed” an unaccounted turnover of around Rs 100 crore from Sanjog Pan Masala, Rs 50 crore from Vah Pan Masala, Rs 110 crore from Trimurti Pan Masala, Rs 150 crore from Kesar Pan Masala, Rs 60 crore from Sir Pan Masala, Rs 200 crore from Talab Pan Masala, Rs 110 crore from Tiranga Pan Masala and around Rs 100 crore from Pan Parag Pan Masala.
He said a truck carrying pan masala worth Rs 20 lakh was impounded during the raid at the factory unit of Pan Parag and the company has been asked to pay Rs 8 lakh as penalties.
The sleuths of the Commercial Tax department have also confiscated CPUs and account books from the premises of the raided units.
The sources said during the raids conducted a few days ago at the offices of these companies in Ghaziabad and Noida, it was found that they were evading taxes worth crores of rupees by tampering with their records.
Eight teams, comprising of around 100 department officials from Kanpur, Lucknow, Noida, Allahabad and Ghaziabad along with the local police had participated in the raids that continued till late night.
