IT shifting Sahara Indian Financial Corpn accounts to Delhi

Mumbai, Apr 26 (UNI) The Income Tax department will soon shift all the accounts of the Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited, relating to income tax, from Lucknow to Delhi in order to put all the investigations against the company in connection with its alleged evasion of Rs 2,844 crore under the direct supervision of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

According to IT officials here, the CBDT has decided to bring all accounts pertaining to Sahara, which has its headquarters in Lucknow, to Delhi, since the tax authorities are apparently not comfortable operating out of Uttar Pradesh capital.

Confirming the development, IT sources here said that the decision was taken in Delhi recently and the entire process of transferring the accounts will be completed in the next few months.

The IT department has imposed a claim of Rs 2,844.70 crore on Sahara, by terming a sizeable part of the latter's deposits as income.

The IT department does not consider the deposit liability of Sahara, a Residual Non-Banking Company (RNBC), and instead has chosen to treat the amount as income.

Sources said that the IT department is treating a part of the deposits mobilised by the company to be in the nature of undisclosed income by invoking the relevant provisions of the IT Act and adding them to the income of the company.

The company had a deposit base of Rs 11,537.26 crore as on March 31, 2005.

Sources in Lucknow told UNI that this claim has been increasing gradually over the last 5-6 years and no final decision has yet been taken on the matter.

One of the reasons for the vacillation by the IT authorities might be because Sahara as an RNBC has complied with the various norms prescribed Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the sources added.

In 1994-95, the company posted a net profit of Rs 22.92 crore on a total income of Rs 938.95 crore including Rs 718.86 crore as interest income.

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