The Income Tax department has raised to Rs. 89,000 crore its total tax demand on Hasan Ali Khan and his associates with the businessman himself having to cough up around Rs. 62,000 crore.The IT department, which earlier had raised a total tax demand of Rs. 71,845 crore on Mr. Khan and his associates, has now included a 24 per cent penalty on this amount as the assessment on them was made in 2008, according to the department sources.
Investigators probing the alleged money laundering and tax evasion charges against the Pune-based businessman meanwhile are mulling to send fresh Letter Rogatories to Switzerland.
Sources said the multi-disciplinary team of officials from I-T, ED, Economic Offences Wing of Maharashtra Police and RBI are now planning to obtain fresh LR’s from a Mumbai court as they have now charged Mr. Khan under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
“The last LR obtained by the enforcement agencies from a Mumbai court remained unhelpful as the Swiss authorities said that the charges against Khan do not pertain to criminal offences. No information on his Swiss accounts and transactions was hence obtained by them,” top sources involved in the probe said.
The new LR’s citing money laundering charges could help elicit additional information from Swiss authorities, they said.
According to the I-T Act, a penalty of 12 per cent is imposed each year on unyielded taxes.
The department has raised a tax of Rs. 50,329 crore against Mr. Khan, Rs. 49 crore against his wife Rheema Hasan Ali Khan, Rs. 591 crore against his associate Kashi Nath Tapuriah, Rs. 20,540 crore against Tapuriah’s wife Chandrika and a Rs. 336 crore against a business firm related to Mr. Khan— R. M. Investment and Trading Company Private Limited.
