The department had received tip-off on tax evasion by Bishal Chemical Industries, Samyam Enterprises and Bishal Jarda Factory about a year ago. After a yearlong investigation, DRI on Monday filed a case against those firms at the Moran District Court, seeking to recover revenue along with fine.[break]
Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, director general of the DRI, said those firms had together evaded Rs 290 million in VAT, excise duty and income tax. And as existing laws imposes 200 percent penalty for such evasion, the department has slapped penalty of Rs 580 million for the three firms. The department had formed four investigation teams in different times to look into the cases.
“After investigating for more than a year, we have filed separate cases against Bhawani Shankar Bohora and Anil Kumar Jain of Bishal Chemical Industry; Sudarshan Bhansari and Mangal Lal Jain of Samyam Enterprises; and Suresh Kumar Jain of Bishal Jarda Factory,” Shrestha told Republica on Monday. He further added that all the firms are under the ownership of family members or close associates.
“They were found evading taxes by setting up business enterprises under the ownership of different family members,” added Shrestha.
Investigation carried out by the department shows that Bishal Chemical Industries evaded revenue amounting to Rs 276.2 million, including Rs 203 million in excise duty, Rs 62.9 million in VAT and Rs 10.3 million in income tax. Similarly, Samyam Enterprises evaded a total of Rs 3 million, including Rs 2.3 million in VAT and Rs 0.7 million in income tax.
Bishal Jarda Factory reportedly evaded total revenue amounting to Rs 27.2 million, including excise duty of Rs 9.75 million, VAT of Rs 3 million and income tax Rs 14.5 million.
A ´flying squad´ of the DRI had raided the business firms on June 13 last year. It had also taken some documents of the firms under its control. But the investigation was delayed, after investigation officers deputed by the department were dragged into controversy over their alleged involvement in protecting the tax evaders.
The DRI over the past five months filed 17 cases against business firms, seeking revenue and fine worth Rs 3.5 billion.
16 vans in DRI control
Meanwhile, the DRI on Monday took 16 vans carrying imported goods under its control on the suspicion of tax evasion and under-valuation during customs declaration.
Shrestha said the vans were carrying garment products, pashmina, mobile sets, server and computer chips among others.
"The vans were intercepted near Tribhuwan International Airport. Initial investigations show that those goods belonged to some individual importers and institutions, including Nepal Telecom," said Shrestha.
He said goods found in excess of the quantity declared at the customs will be seized. “We will slap penalty to importers if we found the goods were undervalued during customs declaration,” added Shrestha.
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