I-T quizzing officials, beneficiaries in tax refund fraud

The Income Tax department is questioning some of its officials and certain beneficiaries at Mumbai after it detected incidents of fraudulent tax refunds earlier this month, which could involve a "few crores of rupees".

The Income Tax department is questioning some of its officials and certain beneficiaries at Mumbai after it detected incidents of fraudulent tax refunds earlier this month, which could involve a "few crores of rupees".

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Sources said after it was found that the user ids and passwords of certain I-T officials were "fraudulently used", the department's investigation wing has "queried tax officials handling the refunds and some of the beneficiaries."

"The amount of money involved in the fraudulent refunds could go into few crores. But the investigation is on to ascertain the exact amount," they said.

The department, on January 12 this year, had found "refunds had been issued from an official's jurisdiction without his knowledge or approval of his higher authorities."

The investigation wing in Mumbai is also carrying out searches at certain places to establish the trail of the fraudulently acquired money, they said.

The department is also taking the help of banks through which the fake refunds could have been processed.

The Finance Ministry had earlier said that investigators have identified bank accounts, beneficiaries and some of the scamsters involved, adding, Mumbai police and CBI, Mumbai have been informed about the matter.