Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, July 26

The Punjab government has detected tax evasion on the sale and purchase of gold worth Rs 760 crore in Amritsar and Ludhiana.

While gold worth Rs 336 crore was sold and purchased on bogus bills in Amritsar, a larger cache of gold sold without bills has been detected in Ludhiana, valued at Rs 424 crore.

The Tribune was the first to report it, highlighting how the huge quantity of gold was found during a raid at a wholesale jeweller in Amritsar.

It was initially suspected that the gold could have been a part of the consignment stolen from the Pearson Airport in what is referred to as the Toronto Gold heist.

Announcing this here on Friday, Finance and Taxation Minister Harpal Cheema said the Tax Intelligence Unit had detected the sale of gold.

"When we began investigation, we found that there was no explanation on the source of the gold received in Amritsar and Ludhiana. It was bought on bogus bills," he said.

Cheema said the tax liability on the Amritsar-based jeweller is Rs 20 crore and on Ludhiana-based jeweller Rs 25 crore, and their registrations had been cancelled.

They were still investigating if the gold was part of the gold heist, he said.

The minister said they had detected the sale of goods on bogus bills worth Rs 4,044 crore by 313 firms. These firms were trying to claim input tax credit and thus trying to defraud the government, he added.