The Income Tax department on late Friday night exposed the tax evasion worth crores of rupees from the five plush Jewellery showrooms in Jammu. Income tax sleuths raised the premises of Chowdhary Shankar Shah Jewellers Jain Bazar, Vijay Shankar Shah Jewellers Jain Bazar, Chowdhary Shankar Shah Jewellers Gandhi Nagar, Rakesh Jewellers Jain Bazar and Rakesh Jewellers Apsara Road Gandhi Nagar. Though, both Talla Jewellers and Silverlines evaded the raids, as shops were closed due to death in the family.

As per sources in the department, "It was keeping a close watch on all these jewellers due to their heavy expenditure on advertisements and promotional activities. These jewellers were offering huge discounts on the prevailing gold prices and selling diamonds at factory rates. During last Diwali one of these jewellers even offered a car and a cash discount of Rs. 25,000 on the purchase of certain quantity of gold".

The officials of the department conducted the raid on Friday afternoon and seized all record of the jewellers.

A K Thathai, income tax commissioner informed HT, "The survey was conducted under section 133-A. Our officials had checked the accounts, recorded the statements and verified the stocks till 2 am and evaluated tax evasion worth several crores."

Thathai said that the process of evaluating the exact figure will take some time, but it conducted raids suggest that it was tax evasion of several crores of rupees. (Hindustan Times)