Doctors under I-T Dept scanner

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 16

Hefty consultation fees, besides nexus with laboratories and diagnostic centres, have made the Income Tax (I-T) Department move its radar towards doctors. Many doctors are under the scanner of the I-T Department. The move has spread panic in the local medical fraternity.

Recently, the I-T Department conducted a survey of four doctors, including a veterinarian, and unearthed undisclosed income running in crores. Some city residents were delighted on hearing the news of doctors coming under I-T lens. They opined that fee of doctors had gone haywire as there was no cap on it. Following the fee, tests and other reports burned a hole in patients’pockets, they said. Doctors should also be made responsible, they added.

A doctor, who retired from the Health Department few years ago, said, “Like any other business, doctors are also running a business in the present times. Raids at doctors’ places no longer surprise me because hospitals and clinics have turned into money-minting places.”

“This profession is no longer sacred. Things are not going to change, but those who charge exorbitantly and also do not pay income tax to the government should be taught a lesson,” he added.

Everybody is keeping fingers crossed and praying that their name does not figure in the list of the I-T Department.