Wilful tax defaulters owe Rs 500-crore to income tax department

The income tax (I-T) department has for the first time gone in for the name-and-shame strategy to get wiful tax defaulters cough up their dues. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) posted on its website the names of 18 defaulters, of whom 11 are based in Gujarat, on Thursday. They defaulters owe Rs 500 crore.

A senior official said that the defaulters have a tax liability of Rs 10 crore and above, and in several cases the assessees are not traceable.

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Defaulters are adivsed to pay tax arrears immediately, the notice said. "We have also provided the PAN number and the last-known address of these defaulters so that members of the public could also provide us some information about their whereabouts," the official added.

The companies in the list include Somani Cement with tax arrears of Rs 27.47 crore, Blue Information Technology (Rs 75.11 crore), Appletech Solutions (Rs 27.07 crore), Jupiter Business (Rs 21.31 crore) and Hirak Biotech (Rs 18.54 crore). The other Gujarat-based companies which figure in the list include Icon Bio Pharma & Healthcare Ltd (Rs 17.69 crore), Banyan & Berry Alloys (Rs 17.48 crore), Laxminarayan T Thakkar (Rs 12.49 crore), Virag Dyeing & Printing (Rs 18.57 crore), Poonam Industries (Rs 15.84 crore) and Kunvar Ajay Food (Rs 15 crore).

Besides, names of Jaipur-based Goldsukh Trade India (Rs 75.47 crore), Kolkata-based Victor Credit & Construction (Rs 13.81 crore) and Mumbai-based Noble Merchandise (Rs 11.93 crore) are in the list.