Patna, Jan. 7: Income tax officials today conducted a survey on the business establishments of three vegetable traders in Patna and Bhagalpur for alleged tax evasion with sights set on illegal stock of onions.
The survey was conducted as part of the income tax (IT) department’s nationwide surveys in states like Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Though the survey was apparently aimed at tracking down the tax evaders, sources said, it was conducted in a bid to put pressure on the vegetable traders, particularly onion vendors, as its prices had skyrocketed in the past month.
The price of onion is currently varying between Rs 55 and Rs 60 in Bihar.
Sources said the survey was conducted by a team on the premises of Ambika Prasad Gupta at Mithapur and that of Manoj Kumar at Bazaar Samiti in Patna. They also visited the establishment of Shanker Sah at Mundichak area of Bhagalpur. Senior officials impounded huge books of accounts and documents from their possession.
“The documents seized from the vegetable traders are being assessed to find out their tax liabilities. Prima facie, it is clear that their transactions run into crores of rupees and they evaded tax,” said an IT official.
The state food and consumer protection minister Shyam Rajak, meanwhile, passed the buck on the Centre for the high onion price. He told The Telegraph: “The state government has no role to play in reigning in the wholesale traders as it is the Centre’s policy of spot trading which gives rise to the hoardings. Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s wrong policy to export onions without considering the domestic requirements had led to its high price. If there are any hoardings by middlemen, the state government would certainly take stern action against them.”
The onion crisis, meanwhile, has returned with its price shooting up to Rs 55 to Rs 60 per kg in the retail market. The middle class is the worst-hit. Homemaker Surbhi Kumari of Rajendra Nagar said: “Till yesterday, the price of the onion was between Rs 35 and Rs 40 per kg. Today, the price was Rs 60 per kg. I bought just half-a-kg of onion.”
