I-T dept names, shames defaulters owing Rs 490 cr

The Income-Tax Department on Thursday released a pan-India list of 24 defaulting individuals and companies who owe about Rs 490 crore in taxes to the exchequer but have either gone untraceable or have reported inadequate assets for payment of dues.

The department issued an advertisement as part of its name and shame defaulters policy in leading national dailies titled 'List of defaulters of Income Tax and Corporate Tax'. The notice, issued by a nodal office of the Principal Director General of Income Tax in Delhi, "advised" the named defaulters to pay their tax arrears immediately.

The announcement carries the identity of the firm or individual, name of their directors and partners, date of incorporation of the company (date of birth in case of individuals), their PAN or the Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN), last known address and business profile, amount of tax defaulted, assessment year and respective jurisdictional I-T authority.

These defaulting firms were in the business sectors like food processing, bullion trading, software, real estate, breweries and manufacture of ingots among others. The maximum tax dues of over Rs 86.27 crore is against a Delhi-based company named Ms Stock Guru, India and its partner Lokeshwar Dev and the notice said the assessee has gone untraceable and also has inadequate assets to pay the income tax.

A Kolkata-based individual Arjun Sonkar has an default of over Rs 51.37 crore and is "not traceable" now.