18 tax defaulters owe Rs 500 crore to exchequer; government releases list

NEW DELHI: Adopting an aggressive approach, government has for the first time gone public with names of 18 tax defaulters, including Goldsukh Trade and Somani Cements, who, in all, owe over Rs 500 crore to the exchequer.

In a bid to force them into paying their dues, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) posted on its website the names of 18 defaulters, of whom 11 are based in Gujarat.

"Defaulters are adivsed to pay tax arrears immediately," said the notice listing them.

"This is the first time the department has put in public domain a list of those wilful tax defaulters who have a tax liability of Rs 10 crore and above," a senior tax official said, adding that in many cases the assessees were not "traceable".

"We have also provided the PAN number and the last known address of these defaulters so that members of the public could also provide us some information about their whereabouts," the official added.

The official said periodically the department has been proposing "naming and shaming" of wilful defaulters.

The companies in the list include Somani Cement with tax arrears of Rs 27.47 crore, Blue Information Technology (Rs 75.11 cr), Appletech Solutions (Rs 27.07 cr), Jupiter Business (Rs 21.31 cr) and Hirak Biotech (Rs 18.54 cr).

The other Gujarat-based companies which figured in the defaulters list include Icon Bio Pharma & Healthcare Ltd (Rs 17.69 cr), Banyan & Berry Alloys (Rs 17.48 cr), Laxminarayan T Thakkar (Rs 12.49 cr), Virag Dyeing & Printing (Rs 18.57 cr), Poonam Industries (Rs 15.84 cr), Kunvar Ajay Food Pvt Ltd (Rs 15 cr).

Besides, names of Jaipur-based Goldsukh Trade India (Rs 75.47 cr), Kolkata-based Victor Credit & Construction (Rs 13.81 cr), Mumbai-based Noble Merchandise (Rs 11.93 cr) are also there in the list.

The list also includes the legal heir of Pune-based G K Dharne involving a tax default of Rs 38.31 crore.