If you happened to meet Mahesh Shah, 67, a few months ago there wouldn’t have been anything remarkable about him — he was a quiet, unassuming man. But all that changed last week when tax sleuths raided his house in Ahmedabad after he declared over ₹13,000 crore under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) and then went missing.
Shah, a land dealer who suffers from a heart ailment, became untraceable before paying the first tax instalment under the scheme. Tax officials also raided the offices of his chartered accountant, Tehmul Sethna of Apaji Amin & Co LLP in Ahmedabad.
Sethna describes Shah as a “person with low-profile”, who “travelled in an auto”. He reportedly become untraceable after the income-tax department in Ahmedabad cancelled his IDS Form 2 on November 28, under Section 193 of the Finance Act, 2016 (IDS).
Sethna claimed that Shah made a disclosure of ₹13,860 crore cash and, as per the IDS scheme, he had to pay ₹1,560 crore as the first instalment to the I-T department by November 30. This figure is 25 per cent of the total tax payable for the declared amount under the scheme.
“We got the order from the I-T department saying that they had conducted a 360-degree search on this person, and from that it appeared that he was not going to pay the tax and this (declaration) is likely to be a hoax. Also, the I-T officials suspect some money laundering to happen through this, so they cancelled the form. I don’t know how that (money laundering) could happen because the demonetisation came later on,” said Sethna.
While the I-T department refused to comment on the matter, Shah could not be contacted.
Sethna said Shah was in regular contact till November 28 and assured him that he would to pay the amount. But he did not do so. “The income-tax department was very cooperative and even showed readiness to arrange for the collection of cash in case of logistics problem. But there is no contact of him now.”