About Rs 4 crore has been siphoned off the I-T system by some unidentified fraudsters with the help of bogus PAN cards, e-returns and e-refund orders. The I-T refunds claimed on the basis of these bogus documents have been deposited in some bank accounts opened in the name of persons who have never paid any income tax.
After a preliminary investigation, tax sleuths have found out that the accounts into which the refunds were credited belonged to a private bank’s branch in Kalbadevi. However, these findings have not been of much use as the funds have been shifted from one bank account to another, making the probe more painful. The investigators have not been able to so far ascertain whether these refund amounts are still lying in any of these accounts or whether they have been withdrawn.
However, tax authorities also do not know how deeply the fraudsters have penetrated into the system. Apparently, only a country-wide investigation would bring out the size of the fraud. For the time being, the investigation has been confined to Mumbai. The tax regime has also pressed into service its own investigation wing to trace the culprits. “If a ticket checker catches a passenger travelling without a ticket it is logical to assume that there are many who are not caught. And if it happens under one tax commissionerate, imagine the size of the scam if similar things had happened in several other commissionerates in Mumbai,” said a tax official who asked not to be named.
The I-T regime in Mumbai is all set to file first information reports (FIRs) with the Mumbai police. As an immediate step, tax authorities have issued orders to change the passwords of their computers so that outsiders cannot access the system. Here also there is a catch. As things stand right now, the tax authorities cannot rule out the involvement of their own staff. They also do not know whether outsiders have hacked the system.
This is a systemic failure, I-T authorities admit. The problem with the system begins with the ease with which one can produce bogus documents to secure a PAN card, an I-T official said.
