Taxmen to trail tainted cricketers

New Delhi: Having discovered a "huge undisclosed income" with some cricketers and bookies, Income Tax (IT) Department has decided to proceed against them. Senior IT officials said they have also found some "new leads" against a bookie who had emerged as a key player in the match-fixing case. Even as a debate was on about whether the players and others named by CBI in its report could be prosecuted, highly placed IT sources said the department would go ahead in the cases of undisclosed and unaccounted income detected during a nation-wide raid on July 20. The sources said the department had almost finalised the "appraisal report" about the raids conducted at the premises of several top cricketers, administrators and bookies. While a major portion of the appraisal report would be finalised by the end of this month, some may spill over to the next month, the sources said. The "appraisal report" would be sent to assessment circles for officers to send show-cause notices to the players concerned for paying up taxes due against their names, the sources said adding that undisclosed and unexplained income would be termed as deemed income "automatically reopening" the cases for a block year of 1991/2001."We have achieved reasonable success in the probe into cricketers and bookies who have huge concealed incomes from various sources," the sources said. While detection of undisclosed and unexplained income would invite 60 per cent penalty without any interest or prosecution, subsequent detection of undisclosed and unexplained income would attract a hefty penalty for the defaulters, the sources said adding that the "IT laws are very severe." Meanwhile, the tax department has found some "new leads" over and above the CBI findings against the financial dealings of a bookie who had emerged as a key player in the match-fixing case, the sources said without elaborating. They said the department would investigate afresh these leads and confront him with the evidence gathered. PTI