Karnataka, Goa bet on Rs 1 lakh crore from income tax

Bengaluru : Karnataka and Goa Income Tax (IT) Department would collect over Rs 1 lakh crore from income tax payers in the two neighbouring states for the fiscal 2017-18, a tax official said on Thursday.

"For the first time, net collection of taxes in Karnataka and Goa region is likely to cross Rs 1 lakh crore this fiscal year, as against Rs 89,500 crore during the previous fiscal from 2016-17," the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax for Karnataka-Goa region Rajnish Kumar told the media here.

Karnataka-Goa region is the third highest contributor to income tax revenue in the country, after Mumbai and Delhi.

"After demonetisation (on November 8, 2016), we got huge data of people who made huge monetary transactions, but did not disclose them in their returns. We have identified 571 such cases in the region who have deposited over 1 crore each, but did not file the IT returns, and have served notices to them," Kumar said.

However, the rise in IT revenue collected this fiscal could not be directly linked to the high value currency note ban as the increment was observed over many years, Kumar asserted.

During the 2017-18 fiscal, the IT Department had conducted over 600 surveys to probe into the undisclosed incomes of those who have not filed their IT returns.

Nearly 21,628 cases had made transactions worth over Rs 10 lakh during the fiscal but did not file returns, the IT official added.

"We are after all such cases, which include doctors and lawyers. If found that they're hiding their income, they will be prosecuted" Kumar stressed.

Surveys conducted to check the compliance with the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) norms in the Karnataka-Goa region revealed an undisclosed income of Rs 2,994 crore and the total tax collected in the fiscal till date was Rs 262 crore, he said.

"One person was arrested by the Tax Recovery Officer on Wednesday for failure to pay the self-assessment tax of Rs 16.45 lakhs and for deliberate alienation of property to escape recovery," Kumar added.