Income Tax department conducts nationwide searches on more than 70 premises of major real estate developers

In a major crackdown, the Income Tax department is conducting nationwide searches on more than 70 premises of major real estate developers in the NCR including Paras and Amrapali group over alleged tax evasion. According to sources, more than 450 officers of the I-T department have conducted searches across Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Goa, Meerut, Haridwar, Mussoorie, Lucknow and Kanpur. The department has also seized huge cash and documents during the searches, sources said. “It is a routine exercise and is being done with all real estate companies in Noida. There is nothing abnormal and we are fully co-operating with them (I-T department). We are a law abiding company,” Paras Buildtech Vice President (Sales and Marketing) Harmit Chawla said. The Amrapali group could not be reached for comments. I-T sleuths also conducted raids at the premises of a firm in Ghaziabad involved in import of computer peripherals from Hong Kong. The department also took the help of its various offices located at Agra, Bulandshahr and some places in Haryana to conduct these searches which are expected to continue till tomorrow. The searches were conducted at the residential premises of these firms too