I-T dept serves show-cause notice to former CM Naidu

The Income Tax department has issued a show-cause notice to Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, asking why an amount of ₹118 crore, allegedly received by him as kickbacks from some infrastructure companies, should not be treated as “undisclosed income” and be processed as per law

- Utkarsh Anand

The notice, reviewed by HT, was issued by the Central Circle, Hyderabad, on August 4 after rejecting Naidu’s preliminary objections that the tax proceedings against him could not have been initiated by the Central Circle before the jurisdictional assessing officer undertook the exercise of reassessment of his income for the impugned financial years.

“Once the case is notified to this office (Central Circle), immediately to commence the proceedings, notice under section 153C was validly issued and the proceedings are in progress,” stated the show-cause notice, adding the department has recorded statements and seized materials to prime facie show that unaccounted income generated through bogus sub-contracts was given back to the former CM.

Section 153C of the I-T Act allows the revenue department to proceed against a party other than the person who has been searched, if certain incriminating materials are found against that party.