28,000 J&K staffers under lens over bogus tax refund

Our Correspondent

Jammu, June 4

Two separate FIRs have been registered after it was found that over 28,000 government employees in Jammu and Kashmir had claimed income tax refunds by using bogus and inactive Accounts Office Identification Number and Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN). I-T officials estimate the fraud to be around Rs 16.64 crore.

Rs 16.64 crore fraud

• I-T officials estimate the fraud to be around Rs 16.64 crore
• It took place during the ITR filing in 2020-21 and 2021-22
• The accused CA used bogus AINs of 4 government depts

Two FIRs were registered on May 25 against one chartered accountant, Imran Dara, and 404 other persons at the Crime Branch in Srinagar. The government employees found to be duping the tax department were from the police, paramilitary forces, health, tourism, education and banks, among other departments.

The Income Tax Department found that the fraud took place during the ITR filing in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Dara allegedly used bogus Accounts Office Identification Number (AIN) of four government departments in the fraud.

The alleged irregularities came to light recently after the tax deducted at source (TDS) wing of the department located in Srinagar found that a number of people who are assessed in Jammu and Kashmir had claimed excessive and ineligible deductions under various heads leading to claim of bogus refunds.

Sources informed that some employees claimed to have paid 50 per cent of their salaries as donation to political parties and claimed deduction under Section 80GGC of the Income Tax Act besides claiming other deductions.

The police have lodged FIR against the over 400 accused under Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Institute of Chartered Accounts of India has also been informed by the I-T Department about role of the CA. The department has requested the institute to cancel his licence. The CA runs a consultancy at Rajbagh in Srinagar.

The Principal Commissioner of Income Tax, Srinagar, in a circular in March had stated that it has been brought to the notice of Chief Secretary J&K that Income Tax Department has done analysis of the refunds to tax payers of Jammu and Kashmir for the Assessment Year 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 and some disturbing trends have been identified in respect of refund claims by the salaried persons which are untrue, erroneous, improbable and not based on the facts.

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