I-T conducts nationwide searches on premises of NSEL members

The Income Tax department is conducting searches on the business premises of two dozen members of the National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) which is facing irregularity charges in settling Rs 5,600 crore dues to investors. Multiple teams of I-T sleuths visited the offices of the firms of the 24 members, a number of which are either small entities or are suspected to be front companies for other people, sources told PTI.

The searches are being done in cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Nagpur, Jaipur and few other locations.

The I-T action has been launched to check the stocks and goods stored in the warehouses of these firms, to check the account books and transactions in order to ascertain any possible tax evasion by these entities and verify their claims of huge dues, they said.

NSEL is facing the problem of settling Rs 5,600 crore dues after its suspended trade on July 31, following the government direction in the wake of violation of certain rules by the exchange. As of now, the Exchange could settle only Rs 92.12 crore out of the scheduled of Rs 174.72 crore payment it had committed to Forward Markets Commission (FMC).

Meanwhile, the Corporate Affairs Ministry said it will take a view "very soon" on the National Spot Exchange episode to ascertain whether it has violated the Companies Act.