BTC Bookies in India raided for tax evasion

On Wednesday, the Karnataka Goods and Services Tax (GST) department’s Enforcement Wing unearthed a huge tax evasion scam – simultaneous raids were conducted by the sleuths on 20 Bangalore Turf Club (BTC) bookies.

Nitesh Patil K, Additional Commissioner (Enforcement), headed the team of officials who carried out the raids after the bookies did not respond to the notices sent to them by the department.

During the raid, the investigators were shocked to find that neither the bookies were maintaining the accounts, nor were they providing tax invoices. As per a senior officer, they had been operating from a location different than the address registered for the operations. Not only that, but they had also been defrauding the exchequer for decades by avoiding taxes.

During one of the raids, the agents uncovered Rs. 20 lacs – the case has been handed over to the Income Tax (I-T) department. As per an I-T department source, a case has been registered and probe initiated against Bhagawandas Deepchand Ahuja, a BTC bookie.

This is the 2^nd raid on the bookies in the last 2 months. On December 7, 2019, the City Crime Branch (CCB) officials had arrested 40 people including private bookies and confiscated Rs 96 lacs during the searches.

Patil stated they had received a complaint on GST evasion by bookies and had nothing to do with the CCB raids. “This scam is just the tip of the iceberg. These bookies were in business for decades and had not kept any accounts,” he said.

After receiving the complaints, the GST investigators pretended to be players. They were neither given a receipt, nor a tax invoice after placing the money. The officials revealed themselves to the bookies after this. The bookies admitted that this was a mistake and said that this was only the first time, as per Patil.

The GST Enforcement wing later sent notices to the bookies to appear for a probe and present their account books. None of the bookies turned up despite repeated reminders, Patil said describing the chronology of events that lead to Wednesday’s raids.

The bookie’s say that the GST slab rate of 28% is too high, and no player would be willing to spend Rs. 280 on every Rs. 1000 bet. As per one of the bookies, they tax the wagerers at 10% GST to encourage betting.

The CCB raids uncovered that they were registering Rs. 1,000 bets at Rs. 100 to avoid taxes.

A bookie said, “For the last 10 days, we were not allowed to operate. We had sent our advocates to appear before GST officials on Monday. On Wednesday, they raided our residences.’’