Jewellery owners and small business men in Thrissur under I-T lens

Thrissur: Local jewellery owners and a finance establishment registered under the co-operative societies Act and run by small-time business men in Thrissur have  come under the Income-Tax radar for an alleged bid to whiten black money.

The finance establishment repaid a loan of Rs 1.5 crore at Nadathara Farmers’ Service Co-operative Bank a few days after demonetisation was announced on November 8.

The Thrissur District Marketing and Processing Co-op Society Ltd situated in TUDA building at Sakthan bus stand had sourced Rs 1.5 crore from jewellery owners and repaid the loan at the co-operative bank on November 11 and 12.

Bank vice-president and local Congress leader M.L. Baby told this newspaper that on December 2, the officials from Thrissur Income-Tax had raised doubts about the remittance of Rs 1 crore on November 11 and another Rs 50 lakh the next day as they verified all the transactions held in the bank after demonetisation.

“The marketing society has a deposit of Rs 2.4 crore in our bank and a loan of Rs 1.5 crore was given to them on the guarantee of this deposit receipts. The loan was closed by paying Rs 1.5 crore before its due date using old Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes. As the I-T officials wanted all the files of our transactions since November 9 till 13, we presented them at their office at Sakthan Nagar on December 6,” Mr Baby added.

The Rs 1.5 crore received by the farmers’ bank was later transferred to the Federal Bank at East Fort and Punjab National Bank at Nellikkunnu, he added.

DC has learnt from sources close to the marketing society that the I-T officials were told that some jewellery owners in Thrissur, who are members of the marketing society, had sourced the money in old notes from their close relatives to settle the loans with the  co-operative bank.

The I-T department is inquiring into the money trail of the jewellery owners who allegedly tried to whiten the black money through the co-operative bank.