Benami Assets Worth Over 452 Crore Attached By Taxmen In Nagpur Region

Nagpur: Taxmen have attached benami assets worth more than Rs 452 crore in Nagpur region related to 30 cases until the financial year ending March 2025. The action comes under Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act 2016 for which a special section has been set up by the department. The jurisdiction of Nagpur region covers Vidarbha & Marathwada.

The majority of the amount attached is cash, with a small portion gold and a single car which was attached recently. "A sizeable amount of the cash was found to be parked in multi-state cooperative societies," said sources.

The accounts are opened in the name of unsuspecting persons having little means to get such amounts in their accounts. Recently, a daily wager living in Multai, Madhya Pradesh, made headlines after he was served a tax notice of Rs 314 crore.

The tax liability was assessed based on an amount running into hundreds of crores found parked in his account in a cooperative society in Nagpur. The cooperative that operated from a pigeonhole sized office has shut down now.

Benami properties are the assets whose ownership cannot be proven by the holders and are held in others' name to avoid detection. Attachment of the assets is the first step. The attachment has to be later adjudicated by a judicial authority. Once adjudicated, the amount is termed to be confiscated and credited to the national exchequer, explained a source.

Out of the Rs 452 crore attached by the department in Nagpur region, over Rs 5.38 crore was finally confiscated during the last fiscal. The process continues for the rest of the amount, said sources. Attachment and confiscation is a continuous process. In 2023-24 FY, assets worth Rs 50 crore were confiscated and deposited into govt exchequer as Rs 6 crore of benami properties were attached.

Lately, the ITAT upheld move to declare over Rs 45cr of deposits parked in over 500 accounts in Buldhana Urban Cooperative Society as benami.