Raids bare tax evasion, 4 hospitals penalised

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 24

After city-wide raids on Monday, the Income Tax Department penalised four hospitals in the city on Tuesday. Suspecting major tax evasion, the department had confiscated documents from the premises of doctors. After examining the documents, the department found a tax evasion of around Rs 3 crore by the four hospitals.

The department fined the hospitals owing to unaccounted money in their possession and for not filing the returns.

The department had launched a survey to unearth undisclosed income, particularly of those who have not filed their returns.

The department penalised Phull Neuro Rs 88.84 lakh for Rs 1.15 crore unaccounted money, while Vardhan Mahaveer Health Care was fined Rs 66.67 lakh for undisclosed money.  Gursharan Hospital and Goyal Nursing Hospital failed to provide documents against Rs 50 lakh and were ordered to pay a fine of Rs 16.99 lakh and Rs 38.64 lakh, respectively.

According to I-T officials, the tax defaulters were on the radar for long. Officials said they visited the hospitals as decoy patients to verify the complaints.

There were complaints that doctors had been charging huge amounts and no bills of the payments were being issued to patients.

The tax defaulters have been given the option of paying the fine either in four instalments or in one go.

The department said more raids would be conducted in the city.