Jaipur, March 10 The investigation wing of the Jodhpur Income Tax Department has successfully recovered outstanding tax dues by auctioning confiscated gold, following the Rajasthan High Court's directives.
The auction took place at Jodhpur Income Tax Bhawan, where 13 gold biscuits—three large and ten small—totalling 4 kg were sold. The auction yielded Rs 3.11 crore for the department.
The case dates back to October 14, 2021, when the Income Tax Department conducted a raid on the premises of a mobile business group in Bikaner. The businessman, Loknath Arora, was found to have undeclared income, with pending tax arrears amounting to Rs 2.96 crore. The matter was contested in the Rajasthan High Court, which ruled in favour of the Income Tax Department.
Following the court's orders, the seized gold biscuits were auctioned in the conference hall of Pawta Income Tax Bhawan on Monday.
The purity of the biscuits was 99.5 per cent, while the gold coins seized in the raid had a purity of 99.9 per cent. The reserve price was set at Rs 4,000 per 10 grams lower than the prevailing online rate.
Ultimately, the gold was auctioned at Rs 77,780 per 10 grams. During the raid at Arora’s residence, the authorities confiscated gold jewellery, biscuits, and coins valued at over Rs 3 crore.
The seized assets included Gold worth Rs 49 lakh declared by Arora himself, Gold worth Rs 4.90 lakh belonging to his wife and gold jewelry worth Rs 2.59 lakh belonging to his daughter-in-law The Income Tax Department sought to recover unpaid taxes based on the undeclared assets. Arora filed a petition in the High Court, stating that he needed funds to settle the outstanding tax amount.
He requested permission to auction the seized gold and adjust the cash recovered during the raid against the dues. After evaluating the evidence, the High Court approved the auction, enabling the department to recover the outstanding tax.
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