PANJIM: After jewellery dealers, it was the turn of iron ore mining companies from Goa to come under the radar of the Income Tax Department on Friday, as an aftermath of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Offices of three leading mining firms were raided by IT sleuth to uncover unaccounted income. The media office of one of the firms that has media interest was also raided Friday morning.
I-T sources said that the search was conducted at the mining companies’ offices at Panjim and Margao. The residences of the company owners were also raided.
“The raids will continue for next two-three days. Currently, we have raided only three mining companies,” I-T sources said. The mining companies are into iron ore production and export. This is not the first time a search has been conducted by I-T Department on mining companies. In 2014, the Central government had revealed the name of a mining giant in the black money case. The ED was investigating the matter.
Earlier, following a tip-off, the I-T department had acted on a person staying in a hotel in Panjim that led to the seizure of Rs 96.45 lakh in cash along with some gold and diamond studded jewellery.
“This led to a search at the residence of a Margao-based doctor, where unaccounted cash amounting to Rs 31.79 lakh and jewellery amounting to Rs 1.60 crore was found and seized,” I-T sources confirmed.
