The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against three Income Tax (I-T) department officials for duping the department of crores by facilitating fraudulent Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) refunds on Sunday, news agency PTI reported.
The three group C I-T officials were posted in the Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar and misused the RSA authentication tokens of senior officials to siphon off over Rs 1.3 crore.
According to the department, the scam came to light when an assessing officer noticed the computation of refunds for assesses under section 154 of the I-T Act.
The accused officials had managed to authenticate and generate fake TDS refunds payable to 11 assesses by misusing the RSA tokens of assessing officers. They generated fictitious refunds to the tune of Rs 1.39 crore from August 1, 2020, to August 25, 2021.
Reportedly, the scam was carried out using the old AST (Assessment Information System) and not through the ITBS (Income Tax business application system).
The CBI has registered a case against the three based on the complaint of the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax, Muzaffarnagar. Following the complaint, the probe agency carried out searches at multiple locations. An investigation was opened against the group C officials identified as Saurabh Singh, Rohit Kumar, and Abhay Kant along with nine beneficiaries.
The I-T department informed that “out of the total amount siphoned off, nearly Rs 35 lakh was deposited back to government accounts by the accused officials as taxes against demand Rs 22 lakh was recovered by assessing officers by way of coercive actions against the beneficiaries.”
"A total recovery either by the staff involved in the scam or by the assessing officers by way of attachment of accounts of the assessees comes to Rs 57.31 lakh so far. The total amount still outstanding, including interest chargeable, is computed at Rs 94.39 lakh," the complaint alleged,” the department added.
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