90% of I-T arrears owed by just 12 people: CAG

The Comptroller and Auditor General has said that 90 per cent of the country's income tax (I-T) arrears are owed by just a dozen individuals, led by Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan.

Government auditor CAG also noted in a report that these demands are "unrealisable 100 per cent".

Khan, with a tax arrear demand of Rs 50,345.73 crore (Rs 503.46 billion) is followed by Chandrika Tapuriah, wife of his associate Kashi Nath Tapuria, with an outstanding of Rs 20,540.83 crore (Rs 205.41 billion), while late stock broker Harshad Mehta owes Rs 15,944.38 crore (Rs 159.44 billion) in arrears.

"The demand against individuals is highly skewed, with 12 individuals (4.3 per cent of the total cases) accounting for 90 per cent of the arrear demand.

One individual Hasan Ali Khan accounts for 43 per cent of the total arrear demand... interestingly all of this demand

is categorised as unrealisable," CAG said in the report tabled in Parliament.

Khan, along with the Tapuriah couple, is embroiled in a number of cases ranging from money laundering, tax evasion and passport forgery which are being probed by various agencies like the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department.

The government, in August this year, had also disclosed the names of the "top 10 individual defaulters" for Income Tax assessment year 2009-10.

Apart from Hasan Ali and Harshad Mehta, they included Kashinath Tapuriah (Rs 602.80 crore), A D Narrotam (Rs 5,781.86 crore), Hiten P Dalal (Rs 4,200.04 crore), Jyoti H Mehta (Rs 1,739.57 crore), Ashwin S Mehta (Rs 1,595.51 crore), B C Dalal (1,535.89 crore), S Ramaswamy (Rs 1,122.48 crore) and Uday M Acharya (Rs 683.22 crore).

CAG said the government has a huge tax demand of Rs 1.96 lakh crore, of which 84 per cent can't be realised due to various reasons like death, insolvency and liquidation of company.