E-Paper
Gujarat man with ₹12 bank balance asked to explain ₹36 crore transactions
Jiteshkumar Makwana, an office boy, said he froze when he saw the income Income Tax Department notice asking him to explain ₹36 crore transactions
Ahmedabad: The Income Tax Department has issued a notice to a resident of Ratanpur village in Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district with ₹12,000 monthly income and ₹12 bank balance to explain “unassessed transactions” of ₹36 crore, which he said he has no clue about.
Jiteshkumar Makwana, an office boy at an Information Technology company, said his income is too low for him to file income tax returns. “When I saw the ₹36 crore notice, I froze. I kept staring at the paper, trying to make sense of it. I only have ₹12 in my bank account.”
He added that he approached the local police station after receiving the notice, which referred him to the cybercrime unit. “The unit sent me to the income tax office, where I was asked to contact GST [Goods and Services Tax] officials, who sent me back. I have just been going in circles.” Makwana said he initially thought this was a case of mistaken identity, but was told that it was not.
Makwana’s Permanent Account Number is believed to have been fraudulently used for GST filings. An income tax department official said the GST department flagged the high-value transactions. “An investigation against him is underway. This could be a case of billing fraud, where someone’s bank and personal details are misused, maybe without their full understanding of the consequences.”
Makvana, the sole breadwinner of a family of five, said he checked his bank statements and found nothing unusual. The notice was issued to him on March 29 under the Income Tax Act’s Section 148A (1), which allows a recipient to respond before the reopening of the income assessment. It accused him of concealing transactions worth ₹36,03,58,915 during the year 2020–21.
The notice said high-value transactions were flagged on a portal, which is part of a Central Board of Direct Taxes initiative to track potentially risky financial behaviour.
The notice lists turnover of ₹15.97 crore under GSTR-3B filings and Input Tax Credit of over ₹20 crore through a firm named JK Enterprise linked to one Jayesh Bharatbhai Nakrani. It said that these transactions were neither disclosed nor taxed.
It asked Makvana to explain the nature of his business activities, submit sales and purchase records, bank statements, and documentation related to JK Enterprise by April 13. It warned that failure to respond will result in proceedings under Section 148 or reopening the assessment.
