UP e-rickshaw driver receives Rs 3.47-crore tax notice

IT Department (Representative image: Shutterstock)

A rickshaw driver from Uttar Pradesh has claimed to have received a notice from the income tax department, asking him to cough up Rs 3.47 crore, according to a report in The Times of India.

Pratap Singh, a resident of Bakalpur village, has lodged a police complaint but no FIR has been lodged against the tax department. Local Superintendent of Police MP Singh told the publication that the police found a Delhi-based firm is registered against Pratap Singh’s PAN and the FIR will be lodged on the basis of further evidences gathered.

Singh had received a call from the income tax department on October 19, asking him to appear in its office. He was served a tax notice of Rs 3.47 crore on his arrival.

“I’ve been driving an e-rickshaw for past four years and earn Rs 400-500 a day, which is barely sufficient to feed five family members. I can’t even think of such an amount,” he said.

The income tax department suggested him to lodge a police complaint as someone has taken a GST number against his PAN card and is running a business which had a turnover of Rs 43.4 crore in 2018-19, and was liable to pay a tax of nearly Rs 3.5 crore.

“Information was received on Insight portal under high risk no filer case wherein it has been shown that the assessee reported turnover of Rs 43.44 crore in GSTR-1. However, the assessed tax was not filed in his ITR within the due date of filing,” the assessment order by the tax department read.

Singh had applied for a PAN card through a Jan Suvidha Kendra in March 2018 and was told that he would receive it after a month. When he didn’t receive the PAN card, he had contacted the centre and had received a coloured photocopy of the PAN card from a man named Sanjay Singh, the report said.