Govt cracking down on illegal sales by jewellers in the last 4 days

The Dollar Business Bureau

After receiving information that some jewellers had resorted to illegal transactions by selling gold to tax evaders who wanted to dispose off their unaccounted wealth, the central excise department got cracking on them. It has asked many jewellers to give a detailed account of the stock and sales made by them in the past four days.

This is a follow-up to the income tax searches and raids done by the officials on Thursday and Friday. The DGCEI (Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence) has sought a complete account from 25 jewellers in Mumbai and a stern warning given to 600 of them in 25 cities.

A notice from the Department reads, “Please declare information regarding stock and sale of all kinds of gold and articles of gold jewellery for the past four days. Failing to do so will invite judicial proceedings if violations are found under Section 3 of the Central Excise Act regarding levy of central excise.”

It had come to the notice of the excise officials that many tax defaulters, hoarders and hawala operators were buying gold from jewellers in cash without providing a permanent account number (PAN), backdated bills for high-value purchases and money launderers accepting Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes for a commission and foreign exchange conversions at a premium.

These were some of the trends being reported after the government announced demonetizing the high-value bank-notes with effect from midnight Tuesday.

The tax department is hoping that such crackdowns will discourage traders from resorting to illegal transactions and lead them to deposit cash in bank accounts and pay the corresponding tax and penalty.

Despite its aggressive drive to check tax evaders, the government has been trying to reassure genuine taxpayers that they have nothing to worry about while making cash deposits.