IT dept accuses Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank of Rs 4,410 cr violations

The IT department's officials raided TMB's head office in Tuticorin on June 27 for around 20 hours.

Thoothukudi:The Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank (commonly known as TMB), headquartered in Tuticorin has not properly accounted for Rs 4,410 crore, the Income Tax Department said on Friday.

The bank's head office was raided by the IT Department's Intelligence Division officers three days back. While reviewing the accounts for the last five years, it has been revealed that the transactions were not properly accounted for in the Financial Transaction Statement.

Details of financial transactions of Rs 2,700 crore in 10,000 bank accounts and Rs 110 crore made through credit card were not provided, IT sources said. Also, no information was available about the investments amounting to Rs 200 crore in dividends and Rs 600 crore in shares along with Rs 500 crore in interest that was payable to the public, it was reported.

On June 27, a 16-member IT team from various districts of Tamil Nadu namely Chennai, Madurai, Trichy, Salem, and Coimbatore arrived in six vehicles at the bank's Tuticorin office. They investigated into the bank records in the presence of bank's CEO Krishnan and other key officials.

During the raid, no outsiders were allowed inside the bank while the employees entered after showing their identity cards. The search operation continued for around 20 hours and at the end, the IT officers took away nearly five bags of important documents from the head office.

A statement issued by bank stated that a statutory inquiry was held at its head office under Section 285 BA of the Income Tax Act 1961. It said that the bank fully cooperated during the inquiry and proper explanation was given for clearing the doubts of the officials. The inquiry did not affect the bank's operations in any manner, the statement added.

The bank started operations in 1929 under the name of 'Nadar Bank' and is currently the biggest commercial bank in Tamil Nadu with 533 branches and 12 regional offices in 17 states and 4 union territories while the head office functions from VE Road in Tuticorin.