J&K: I-T Department warns govt employees against fraudulent refund claims

Jammu, Mar 17 (PTI) The Income Tax Department has warned stern action against employees of various government departments, including police department, in Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly indulging in large scale fraudulent refund claims.

The issue was raised by the principal commissioner of income tax, J&K and Ladakh, prompting the finance department to issue a circular seeking filing of updated income tax returns (ITRs) by defaulter employees and withdrawing incorrect claims forthwith.
In his communication, the I-T principal commissioner said majority of employees from different departments including education, health, power, public health engineering, cooperatives, sports, tourism, industry, public works and police, have been found to be indulged in claiming excessive deductions under various sections of the Income Tax Act, for which they were ineligible and such deductions were also found to be inconsonant with their income profile.
The I-T Department highlighted the serious consequences of the fraudulent claims like rigorous imprisonment for a term ranging from three months to seven years along with fine, attachment of bank accounts of defaulters to recover the fraudulently claimed amounts, detailed scrutiny which will result in levying of tax along with penalty at the rate of 200 per cent of tax evaded and interest on tax computed in their respective cases.

Besides, non-compliance to the department’s communication will also attract a penalty of Rs 10,000 for each default, the communication said, asking the defaulter employees to file updated ITRs, withdraw incorrect claims and pay taxes to avoid any coercive action.

Setting a timeline for filing of updated ITRs for financial years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23, the department advised the defaulters that updated ITRs for the relevant years may be filed immediately without waiting for due dates, as delay in filing ITRs will result in issuance of show cause notices or selection of cases under scrutiny besides payment of additional taxes.

Responding to the communication, Principal Secretary, Finance Department, Santosh D Vaidya issued a circular and impressed upon all the administrative secretaries or heads of departments to issue advisories, besides directing the drawing and disbursing officers under their control to ensure that the defaulter employees file updated ITRs and withdraw incorrect claims made by them.