Cash, gold seized in tax raids on Bengaluru medical labs

Bengaluru: The Income Tax (I-T) Department has seized Rs 1.4 crore and 3.5 kg gold and jewellery during raids conducted on five medical labs and two In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinic doctors during the last three days, said a top tax official on Saturday.

“The raids on the five medical diagnostic centres and two IVF clinics/doctors in the city also detected secret foreign bank accounts and deposits worth crores of rupees, besides foreign currency,” I-T Joint Director G. Ramesh told IANS here.

The searches also found that though the labs had declared previously undisclosed income of over Rs 100 crore, the referral fees in the case of a single lab exceeded Rs 200 crore.

“We have also found revenue sharing agreements with some doctors by which referral fee is paid in cheques,” said Ramesh in a statement.

In few cases, the referral fees paid to doctors in cheques was “disguised” as professional fees, he said.

The raids on the five labs have revealed concealed income of over Rs 100 crore, the statement added.

“The normal commission for doctors in these labs for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test was found to be 35 per cent, and about 20 per cent in case of Computed Tomography (CT) scan and other lab tests,” it said. (IANS)