Mumbai family's wealth declaration 14 times more than Gujarati realtor; taxmen puzzled

The declaration of Rs 200,000 crore wealth by a four-member Mumbai family confounds the Income Tax Department, especially due to their middle class antecedents, official sources said on Monday.

However, a terse statement by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) rejecting the family's claims stunned Mumbaikars, who are used to the filthy rich in the country's commercial capital.

CBDT spokesperson Income Tax Commissioner Meenakshi Goswami said the family made the disclosure at the IT Office in Mumbai.

"This high-value declaration was found to be suspicious, so it has not been taken on record," she said in a statement.

The family comprises Abdul Razzaque M. Sayed (self and declarant), wife Rukhsana, son Mohammed Aarif and sister Noorjahan Mohammed Sayed.

Despite their stupendous net-worth, the Sayeds' sources of income and details of their business remains unknown.

Their net-worth declaration of around Rs 200,000 crores is 14 times more than the Ahmedabad realty trader Mahesh Shah's admission of Rs 13,860 crore.

The CBDT statement said: "It was announced that declarations totalling Rs 65,250 crore were received from 64,275 declarants, subject to reconciliation. After final reconciliation, the revised figure of actual declarations received and taken on record was Rs 67,382 crore, which had been made by 71,726 declarants."

The Sayeds have made the declarations on four PAN cards, three of which were issued in Ajmer in Rajasthan. But later they shifted to Mumbai where the net-worth statements were filed around September.

The CBDT and the IT authorities, doubting the genuineness of the Sayeds' staggering wealth, are puzzled over the possible intentions behind the declaration, given their modest backgrounds.

The family lives in an ordinary 2 BHK ground floor flat in an old building, Jubilee Court, in Bandra West, roughly worth around Rs 2.50 crore.

The family has not been seen for several years and they are an unknown entity in the maximum city's hi-fi and glam circles.

The Sayeds' declaration has raised the antennae of the IT sleuths since under IDS they would be entitled to cough up taxes and penalties of around 45 percent (Rs 90,000 crore) and take away the rest (Rs 110,000 crore) as respectable 'white money'.

More so after Ahmedabad's Shah - who declared Rs 13,860 crore - has reportedly made it clear that he was merely fronting for some entities who he said he would later expose.

--IANS

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