Crorepati brokers face I-T scrutiny

MUMBAI: Stock and commodity brokerages with earnings of Rs 1 crore or more a year will be compulsorily scrutinised by the Income-Tax Department, thanks to a new directive issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for selection of cases for scrutiny.

This decision to probe the returns of brokers with Rs 1 crore brokerage has been taken in the backdrop of a market that has been growing incessantly for the past three years. Tax authorities apprehend that only a slice of the gains made in the stock as well as commodity markets eventually gets taxed.

The searches carried out by the I-T department in the course of the last few years have convinced the revenue authorities that a substantial part of the income generated in the market go untaxed. For example, sources in the department said that more than Rs 10,000 crore may have been laundered through manipulation penny stocks alone.

Further, the CBDT has also said that even stock and commodity brokers and their sub brokers with a bad debt claim of Rs 5 lakh or more will come under scrutiny.

The guidelines also makes it clear that the finance ministry seeks to closely monitor the multi-national companies operating in India. The CBDT procedure says all cross-border transactions worth Rs 15 crore or more will be compulsory scrutinised.