An informer to the Income Tax Department moved the Bombay High Court demanding a reward for a tax evasion case he helped uncover, according to a report. The informer filed a petition seeking directions to give 20 per cent of the total amount that was recovered by the department. The court has issued a notice to the central government over the same.
An informer filed a petition stating that he had shared specific information with the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) regarding a company, reported The Times of India.
He alleged that a company manufacturing insecticide and its formulations was evading excise duty and taxes. Based on his inputs, DGCEI conducted an operation and found that the company was evading central excise and custom duties and service tax.
The department recovered Rs 30.58 crore including Rs 6.9 crore interest. However, the informer was not rewarded, the petition alleged.
Finally, after a delay of over 6 years, DGCEI disbursed Rs 25 lakh as the ‘one-time final reward’, the petitioner claimed. “In an opaque manner without providing reasons how the said reward amount was arrived at,” it added.
Citing the revised ‘Guidelines for Grant of Reward to Informers and Government Servants’, the petitioner claimed that he is entitled up to 20% of the duty/tax evaded plus fine and penalty levied. He demanded Rs 4.7 crore reward of the recovered Rs 23.6 crore.
The petitioner claimed that he approached the department to reconsider the reward amount and enhance it, but received no response and hence moved the Bombay High Court in May last year.
