I-T raids on Tamil film producers, financiers yield ‘undisclosed’ income of over ₹200 crore

The Income Tax Department recently carried out search and seizure operations on certain producers, distributors, and financiers associated with the film industry in Tamil Nadu, and detected “undisclosed” income of more than ₹200 crore.

The search operations were conducted on August 2 at almost 40 premises located in Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, and Vellore, the Union Ministry of Finance said on Saturday (August 6).

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“So far, the search operation has resulted in detection of undisclosed income exceeding Rs. 200 crore. Undisclosed cash of Rs. 26 crore and unaccounted gold jewellery exceeding Rs. 3 crore have been seized. Further investigations are in progress,” the ministry said in a statement.

During the course of the search operations, several incriminating documents and digital evidence etc., relating to unaccounted cash transactions and investments have been seized. Secret and hidden premises have also been unearthed during the search.

The searches in the cases of film financiers have revealed documents like promissory notes etc., relating to unaccounted cash loans, which were advanced to various film production houses and others.

Also read: I-T raids in Tamil Nadu yield huge amount of unaccounted cash: Official

“In the cases of film production houses, evidences reveal tax evasion, as the actual amounts realised from the release of the films are much more than the amounts shown in the regular books of account. The unaccounted income so generated by them is deployed for undisclosed investments as well as for various undisclosed payments,” the ministry said.

Similarly, evidences seized in the cases of film distributors, indicate collection of “unaccounted cash” from the theatres. As per the evidences, the distributors have formed syndicates and have systematically suppressed the theatre collections, resulting in the suppression of actual income, according to the ministry.

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