I-T Dept Uncovers Rs. 18,000 Crore Property Reporting Gaps in Punjab
On Thursday, September 25, the Intelligence and Criminal Investigation (I&CI) Directorate of the Income Tax Department in Chandigarh carried out an inquiry at the Kharar tehsildar office, uncovering discrepancies in the reporting of property transactions exceeding Rs. 18,000 crore.
However, the directorate has given revenue officers a chance to file their Statement of Financial Transaction (SFT) and correct their financial record within 15 days. If they fail to do so, penal action will be taken against them.
During the investigation, officials matched the data from state registry software with records submitted by the tehsildar to the income tax department. It was found that many big-value property payments running into crores were either not reported or were filed with inaccurate details.
According to the rules, all property payments exceeding Rs 30 lakh must be reported to the income tax department with names, PAN, and Aadhaar details of buyers and sellers. But in several cases, tehsildars allegedly submitted incomplete information and often without a PAN number, which made it impossible for the income tax department to verify their identities or assess whether taxes were paid.
Not only in Kharar but many investigations have been directed in Amritsar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Fazila, Khanna, and other areas of Punjab. But the right measures are not being taken by the state registry officials, due to which the department was constrained to conduct enforcement actions.
The department has also been conducting awareness seminars and outreach programs for tehsildars to make them understand their responsibility in filing the right information and details.
Even after awareness seminars, several tehsildars still continue to give incorrect reports to the department.
The main reason to conduct such an investigation across the state is to ensure correct reporting of big-value property transactions to restrain tax evasion.
As per the I&CI Directorate, the investigations are aimed at expanding the tax base and strengthening compliance.