The Income Tax (I-T) Department on Thursday said that the recent raid conducted by them against the BMC contractors and a Shiv Sena leader have exposed an international hawala racket. The BMC contractors allegedly evaded income to the extent of Rs 200 crore.The raids were conducted at more than 35 places in Mumbai belonging to certain contractors executing contracts of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and Shiv Sena corporator and Standing Committee chairperson of BMC, Yashwant Jadhav.The Income tax official said that particulars of about three dozen immovable properties, worth Rs 130 crore have also been detected, which includes properties acquired either in their name or their associates or 'benamidars'.Evidence of their involvement in international hawala transactions and routing of the ill-gotten money to certain foreign jurisdictions have also been recovered.The preliminary investigation indicates that these contractors have evaded income to the extent of Rs 200 crore on account of the above malpractice.
During the search operation, undisclosed cash of Rs 2 crore and jewellery of Rs 1.5 crore were seized."During the course of the search operation, numerous incriminating documents, loose sheets and digital evidence have been found and seized. The evidence so seized strongly indicates a close nexus between these contractors and the said person," said an I-T official.Loose sheets and excel files with details of unaccounted cash receipts and payments aggregating to several crores have also been found and seized, which have not been recorded in the regular books of account.In the case of contractors, the seized documents revealed the modus-operandi adopted by them for large-scale suppression of taxable income by inflating their expenses. For this purpose, the prominent recourse is over-invoicing of sub-contract expenses through a maze of entities and by claiming non-genuine expenses. Certain instances show that cash has been taken out from these entities and the same has been utilised for obtaining undue favours for awarding of contracts and also for making unaccounted payments for investments in properties.Further investigations in the matter are underway.