Hyderabad: Rs 700-crore tax evasion by Yadadri realty firms

Abids: The Income Tax Department on Wednesday detected tax evasion to the tune of Rs 700 crore, following multiple raids recently conducted on real estate firms in the city. According to Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), they seized cash amounting to Rs 11.88 crore and jewellery worth Rs 1.93 crore during the raid on the groups based in and around Yadagirigutta.

The department further noted, "The entities searched are into plot ventures as well as construction of apartments. During the course of the search operations, many incriminating documents, handwritten books, agreements, among others, indicating unaccounted cash transactions were seized from their possession. The data was also recovered from a specialised software application as well as from other electronic gadgets."

The firms were found to be accepting cash over and above the registered value of the lands and such unaccounted cash was used for on-money payment for purchase of land and other incidental business expenditure. The search resulted in the detection of incriminating evidence relating to unaccounted cash receipts to the tune of Rs 700 crore for the last six years, the income of which is taxable in the hands of the transacting parties, read the statement from the CBDT.