Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday honored a team of the Income Tax Department. This team of Income Tax Department had seized the highest amount of cash of Rs 352 crore in the country till date during a raid against a distillery group in Odisha last year.
Officials honored with ‘CBDT Certificate of Excellence’
In a special program organized to mark the completion of 165 years of Income Tax Department in India, the Union Minister honored the Income Tax team led by Principal Director of Income Tax Investigation S.K. Jha and Additional Director Gurpreet Singh with the ‘CBDT Certificate of Excellence’ in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha.
Rs 351.8 crore was seized in the raid that lasted for 10 days
Gurpreet Singh, a 2010 batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), played an important role in raiding several premises of a distillery group based in Odisha on the basis of ‘intelligence information’ on December 6 last year. That search operation of the Income Tax Department lasted for 10 days. During this, a total of Rs 351.8 crore cash was recovered, which was described as ‘the largest seizure in a single operation by any agency’ in the country.
These officers were also honored
Nirmala Sitharaman also handed over certificates to two other members of that team of the Income Tax Department – Income Tax Deputy Director H.K. Das and Income Tax Inspector P.K. Singh. This award has been instituted for the first time by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative body of the Income Tax Department. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary was also present during the program organized at Vigyan Bhavan here.
Nirmala Sitharaman expressed gratitude to taxpayers
On the occasion of completion of 165 years of Income Tax Department, the Union Finance Minister also expressed gratitude to the taxpayers of the country. Nirmala Sitharaman said, “I express my heartfelt gratitude to our honest taxpayers, due to whose welfare, development and aspirations India’s economy is running today.”
