Jharkhand Income Tax Department Uncovers Major Tax Evasion Scam Involving Political Funding

Ranchi: The income tax (I-T) department, Jharkhand, has revealed a scam related to tax evasion in the name of political funding by more than 500 professionals of Jharkhand and Bihar, having huge annual earnings. Efforts are underway to recover the evaded amount, along with the penalty and interest, from the evaders, I-T sources said on Thursday.According to the sources, the tax evasion took place through political funding to the Aam Janmat Party, which is registered in Bihar, but all its office bearers are natives of Gujarat. It may be stated here that funding of political parties is exempted from I-T under Rule 80 GGC.A large number of people of Madhubani, Purnia, Supaul, East Champaran and West Champaran in Bihar and Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad in Jharkhand had donated amounts to the party to take advantage of the exemption rule. The party, however, used to return the money through various means after keeping five per cent of every donated amount.Following the detection of the modus operandi to evade taxes, a large I-T team from Jharkhand, comprising over 50 officials, had carried out searches on the premises of Aam Janmat Party’s office bearers in the first week of August and found that it had received political funding amounting to Rs 2,000 crore.During interrogation, the office bearers admitted to their involvement in the tax evasion. The party’s chartered accountant has also stated that he signed the party’s balance sheet without an audit.Currently, the I-T department is issuing notices to the donors, asking them to withdraw the donation and also update their I-T returns. It may be mentioned here that a large number of them are working in reputed companies. They came to know about the Aam Janmat Party mainly through the latter’s agents. “Legal action will also be taken against the party’s office bearers in future,” a source in the I-T department said.