According to the latest revelation of the income tax department, 447 companies have tricked the government of Rs. 3200 Crore by not submitting the sum to the government which had been deducted from their employees as TDS. As per a report, all this money was used to fulfill other business obligations. After this news, the TDS wing of the income tax department has been keeping a track of all these companies. The TDS Wing had started a trial against these firms under Section 276B of the Income Tax Act, which can lead to an imprisonment ranging from 3 months to 7 years.
The income tax department is also thinking of adding the IPC sections of cheating and criminal breach of trust. Most of the accused are believed to be builders. One of these offenders is a leading builder who diverted an amount of Rs. 100 Crore income tax deducted from its employee’s salaries to be used in other business interests and departments. Some production houses, start-ups, and infrastructure companies too are involved in the scam. A huge amount of Rs. 11 Crore has not been deposited by the IT Company apart from Rs. 14 Crore which is yet to be deposited by a port-development firm.
An IT official also disclosed that a sum of Rs. 3,200 Crore was held by these companies between the period of April 2017 and March 2018. Some of these people will also be arrested by the department to avoid any such circumstances in the future. The same will be initiated by the government by checking the attaching bank accounts. The money was used as working capital in several cases as was stated by the source. Some of the employees have promised to pay the amount whereas some will not be able to pay. In some cases, 50 percent of the deducted TDS from the salaries of the employees was misused.