Hyderabad: Major discrepancies were noticed in the income tax returns submitted by cine star Nagarjuna by IT sleuths on Thursday, a day after the department raided his premises and those of other Tollywood bigwigs — Ravi Teja and Anushka.
According to sources in the department, several land purchases and real estate development activities which were taken up by the Akkineni family in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Bangalore and Chennai were not included in the tax returns submitted for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.
“The advance returns filed for this year also did not account for Nagarjuna’s recent purchases in Vizag. Also, the accounts with regard to his recent investments in N-Convention Centre and N-Grill restaurant in 6 acres of land opposite Hi-Tec City, said to be worth more than Rs 500 crore, are not clear,” the IT sources said.
The IT officials are also probing the construction of a cine complex in Visakhapatnam by Ravi Teja for which the actor bought land six months ago.
The sleuths are also said to be probing the purchase of a piece of land near Shamshabad in Hyderabad and in Visakhapatnam by Ravi Teja along with fellow star Anushka and a few others.
With regard to Anushka, the IT officials claimed they had not been able to detect any glaring omissions or discrepencies except the single investment in Vizag which is said to be worth over Rs 6 crore. “During the searches at her Jubilee hills guest house, we did not find any gold or expensive jewellery,” the sources said.
However, IT officials on Thursday slapped notices on the three stars asking them to explain the discrepancies in the tax payments. Notices were also sent to D Shiva Prasad Reddy of Kamakshi Movies and Nagarjuna’s brother Venkat.
If the stars refuse to accept that they have not withheld any income, then as per IT rules, a penalty up to 90 per cent of the value found in the raids can be imposed. However, if the stars admit a mistake, the penalty can be reduced to 30 per cent of the value, according to the IT sources.
A final report on the actors’ tax evasion and concelement will be known only by Friday as the officials are busy calculating the value of the land and tax it would attract along with the penalty, the sources added.
Source: TOI
