The Income Tax Department has carried out a search and seizure operation on three real estate developers, engaged in the business of land development as well as construction activities in the town of Kurnool and other mofussil areas of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The Ministry of Finance on Monday informed that more than two dozen premises have been covered in the search operation spread over Kurnool, Ananthapur, Kadapa, Nandyal, Bellary, etc.
During the course of the search operations conducted on January 5, several incriminating documents, such as handwritten books, agreements, etc. have been found and seized, the Ministry of Finance said in a press release.
Digital data has also been seized from a specialized software application as well as from other electronic gadgets. It has been found in the case of one of the assessee groups that it has been using software that has been systematically modified to eliminate the unaccounted cash element of the consideration received and to record in the regular books of account the sale consideration that matches with a registered sale price.
These groups have been found to be accepting cash over and above the registered value of the properties. Such unaccounted cash is used for payments of on-money towards the purchase of lands and incurring other expenditures.
So far, the search action has led to the seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs 1.64 crore. The search has resulted in the detection of unaccounted cash transactions to the tune of Rs 800 crore, the Ministry of Finance said.
Further investigations are in progress.
( With inputs from ANI )
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