A day after Vishal-Raja spat, I-T department raids former's office
- Senior IT officials said, "Income tax department's TDS wing officials visited Vishal Productions office to verify non deposit of TDS to the tune of Rs 51 lakh which the production company had collected by deduction but has so far not deposited in the government account."
- Unlike TV splashes, DG-GST (Chennai) intelligence wing's joint director, PVK Rajasekar confirmed that no search operations have been conducted in the actor's office by the team.
- Vishal has been asked to visit the I-T department office with the account books of the company.
FollowThe TDS (Income Tax) department on Monday is said to have raided the office of actor Vishal at Vadapalani in Chennai for "evading" Rs 51 lakh collected as TDS. According to a report by the Times of India, he was supposed to deposit the amount in the government account, but failed to do so. Incidentally, the alleged raid took place just a day after a major verbal spat broke out between Vishal who is also the president of Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC) and BJP leader H Raja over Vijay starrer movie 'Mersal'.
Speaking to reporters, Vishal said, "I came to know that a TDS official visited my premises. I was at a shooting. There was no one in my office then." Vishal's publicist Johnson, however, had a different version of the rumour. He said that it was a routine investigation conducted by the TDS wing. "An official named Venkatraman visited Vishal's office."
Meanwhile, a senior IT official told Times of India, "Income tax department's TDS wing officials visited Vishal Productions office to verify non deposit of TDS to the tune of Rs 51 lakh which the production company had collected by deduction but has so far not deposited in the government account."
Agitated at the TV news reports, which said that the intelligence wing team of the directorate general-GST was in the actor's office, the DG-GST (Chennai) intelligence wing's joint director, PVK Rajasekar confirmed that no search operations have been conducted in the actor's office by the team.
An I-T official said, "Neither the actor-producer nor the account books were available at his office. An employee in the office said the office was yet to deposit the deducted tax and assured the TDS team that the amount will be deposited in two or three installments."
The officer further said that the department has asked the actor to appear in its office with the company's account books. The I-T officials are said to have come to his office at 3:45 pm and left at 6:45 pm.
