Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh): Kanpur-based businessman Piyush Jain has asked the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) to return the huge stash of cash seized from his premises after deducting tax and penalty amounting to Rs 52 crore.
Jain was arrested on charges of tax evasion and is presently in 14-day judicial custody.
Special Public Prosecutor Amrish Tandon, who represents DGGI, informed a court on Wednesday that Piyush Jain has revealed that he evaded tax and owes a penalty amounting to Rs 52 crore.
The lawyer for Piyush Jain, however, asked the court to instruct DGGI to deduct the Rs 52 crore owed by the trader as a penalty and return the remaining amount.
Tandon responded by saying that the recovered amount was proceeds of tax evasion and will not be returned. If Jain wants to pay an additional Rs 52 crore as a penalty, then DGGI will accept it, he stated.
In one of the biggest seizures in history, the DGGI seized over Rs 195 crore in cash, 23 kilograms of gold and sandalwood oil worth Rs 6 crore during raids at several premises linked to Jain in Kanpur and Kannauj.
Meanwhile, the GST office on Thursday dismissed as "purely speculative" reports which say the department is treating the Rs 197.49 crore cash recovered from perfume maker Peeyush Jain as business turnover and a fourth of it being allowed to be deposited as tax, saying voluntary submissions by the accused is under investigation, which will decide the exact nature of the liability.
Dismissing reports that the department had treated the recoveries as turnover and the accused has been allowed to deposit Rs 52 crore as tax dues, it said the entire recoveries are kept in the safe custody of State Bank of India pending further investigation.
"No deposit of tax dues has been made by M/s Odochem Industries from the seized money to discharge their tax liabilities and their tax liabilities are yet to be determined," the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) said.
Such reports, it said, are "purely speculative, without any basis and seek to undermine the integrity of the ongoing investigations which are being carried out in a most professional manner based on specific intelligence."
"In this regard, it is clarified that the total amount of cash in the ongoing cash from the residential and factory premises of Peeyush Jain has been kept as cash property in the safe custody of the State Bank of India pending further investigations," it said.
Without disclosing the statement made by Jain, it said the "voluntary submissions" are a "subject matter of ongoing investigations and any view on the source of cash seized by the department and the exact tax liabilities of M/s Odochem Industries or other parties involved in the investigation shall be taken on the basis of appraisal of evidence collected from various premises during the searches and the outcome of further investigations."
It added that based on the "voluntary admission of guilt and the evidence available on record," Jain was arrested on December 26 and produced before the competent court the next day, which remanded him to 14 days' judicial custody."
Jain has been charged under Section 132 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017, which among other things deal with offences of supplying any goods or services without an invoice, the issue of any invoice or bill without supply of goods or services, or evading tax. The offences provide maximum imprisonment of 5 years and a fine.
Also read: GST Tax Evasion: Perfume trader Piyush Jain sent to 14-day judicial custody
(With agency inputs)
