Luxury brands Harley Davidson, Louis Vuitton, others under IT Radar

New Delhi [India], June 26 (ANI): Luxury brands Harley Davidson and Louis Vuitton, and several other business entities, are under the income tax radar for taking cash above Rs.2 lakh in clear violation of a new income tax law introduced in this year's budget.

The Directorate of Intelligence and Criminal Investigation, Department of Income Tax, had run a special project between January and March to nail these companies.

A survey revealed that the Harley Davidson showroom in Guwahati, Venkys in Pune, a Louis Vuitton dealer, a Gucci dealer, 5-star hospitals in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Lucknow and Indore were accepting cash of more than Rs.2 lakh.

An officer, who was involved in the survey, told ANI, that a total 1705 cases were found to be violating Section 269ST of the Income Tax Act.

Section 269ST was introduced under the Finance Act, 2017 with effect from April 1, 2017 and puts a limit on cash transactions to put a check on black money and tax theft.

This section is a much talked about section as it provides penalty for any cash transaction above the value of Rs. 2 Lakh, equal to the transaction amount.

According to the officer, these violators will be levied a penalty of Rs.45.60 crore under Section 271DA.

As per Section 271DA of the Income Tax Act, if a person receives any sum in contravention of any of the provisions and rules of Section 269ST, he shall be liable to pay a penalty of amount equal to the amount of such receipt received in cash.

According to the officer, the survey found that violators had changed there accounting software.

The case has now been forwarded to an assessing officer that they had started working on this case.

In some cases, notices were sent and some searches had also been done.

A Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) official said on condition of anonymity that recently they had conducted searches on some fashion designers who had taken cash above Rs. 2 lakh. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI