IAS officer DK Ravi: Fearless officer who took on the high and mighty

Bengaluru: IAS officer D.K. Ravi Kumar had sent shivers down the spine of sand mafia during his stint as deputy commissioner of Kolar district, and he continued his daring clean-up act even at the commercial tax department by raiding those who defaulted on the tax.

In a short stint of four months as the additional commissioner of commercial tax (enforcement), he netted over Rs 130 crore for the government through his raids against big corporate houses and real estate companies.

Soon after he was transferred to the commercial tax department in Bengaluru, Mr Ravi took on the tax evaders. He raided some of the big business groups, including Rajesh Exports, Nitesh and Mantri Developers, across the state.

His first task as the additional commissioner was to prepare a list of top 50 tax defaulters. Immediately after, he started the raids, beginning with Rajesh Exports in December 2014. Over 67 offices, including 24 in the city, were raided simultaneously across the state.

On February 9, his team raided the Axis Bank head office on M.G. Road and found that the bank had evaded taxes to the tune of Rs 4 crore while transacting in gold.

Mr Ravi and his officials raided the main office of Nitesh Estates Limited on M.G. Road on February 21 and unearthed tax evasion of Rs 10 crore in two apartment projects, Nitesh Forest Hills and Nitesh Flushing Meadows. The company had collected taxes from property buyers, but had not credited the amount into the government’s account. On March 9, his department raided the office of Golden Gate Properties and noticed tax evasion of Rs 2 crore.

The biggest was the raid on property development company Assetz, which yielded Rs 30 crore. The department found that the company, which had developed several projects through joint ventures, had sold thousands of apartments over the years, but had not paid the taxes.

The officials found tax liability of Rs 8.5 crore at another real estate company Elegant.