From Lokeshwar Dev to Arjun Sonka, Income Tax dept looks to name and shame defaulters

The Income Tax Department on Thursday published a countrywide list of 24 defaulting individuals and companies who are currently either untraceable or have reported assets inadequate for payment of their dues. In full-page advertisements issued in major national dailies as part of its name and shame policy on defaulters, the department advised them to pay their tax arrears immediately. The businesses of the defaulting firms as shown in the list include food processing, bullion trading, software, real estate, breweries and manufacture of ingots.

The total default amount of 24 entities from cities like Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Vijaywada, Nashik, Surat, Delhi, Vadodara, Kolkata and others, is around Rs 490 crore. The highest tax dues of over Rs 86.27 crore is against a Delhi-based company named Stock Guru, India and its partner Lokeshwar Dev, while the notice said the assessee had become untraceable and also had inadequate assets to pay tax.

According to the list, a Kolkata-based individual Arjun Sonkar has an income tax default of over Rs 51.37 crore and is currently untraceable. 

Another individual from Kolkata, Kishan Sharma, is in default of Rs 47.52 crore. Some defaulters on the list have not paid their taxes since the assessment year 1989-90.

In this connection, the notice said the "entries in the list are specific to the tax arrear/assessment year mentioned and the tax defaulter`s address, business, shareholding and management may have changed".

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"The amount of tax arrears shall further increase after charging of interest," it added.