NEW DELHI: Suspecting large scale
service tax evasion, financial intelligence agencies are carrying out massive
searches against various real estate firms across the
country.
The on-going search operation
started a fortnight back in which the evasion by firms providing real estate
services including renting and other collaborations was detected, official
sources said.
The Central Economic Intelligence
Bureau (CEIB), a nodal agency for collection and dissemination of intelligence
related to financial sector, and Directorate General of Central Excise
Intelligence found inputs on alleged service tax evasion, the sources said.
The sleuths have searched various
real
estate firms and builders offices in the national capital and in
suburban areas including Noida, Ghaziabad, Bhiwadi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata,
Vishakhapatnam and Chennai among others, they said.
The real estate firms are
required to pay 12.5 per cent service tax.
Many of the deals mainly related
to renting of land, house or any other commercial properties evade tax net as
the money transactions are not recorded in government documents and taken
directly and illegally, they said.
A Finance Ministry report has
said that land and real estate are possibly the
most important class of assets used for investment of black money.
"As immovable properties are
not usually comparable, valuations are different. This imparts flexibility to
the valuation process, and makes it an ideal investment for black money.
"Both 'black' and 'white'
savings are utilized for investment in land and real estate, which
provides hedge against inflation apart from a profitable alternative for
investment for black savings," it has said.
