Mumbai family stuns tax officials by declaring $29bn in income

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GEO ENGLISH
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Mumbai family stuns tax officials by declaring $29bn in income

A family of four from Mumbai has stunned public officials in India by declaring that it owed income tax on $29 billion (over two trillion Indian rupees) during the government's tax amnesty program.

On Sunday, the Finance Ministry said the family of four declarants—Abdul Razzaque Mohammed Sayed, Mohammed Aarif Abdul Razzaque Sayed (son), Rukhsana Abdul Razzaque Sayed (wife) and Noorjahan Mohammed Sayed (sister)—made the surprising and suspicious declaration during a tax amnesty program which ended in September.

The amount is three times the combined $9.8 billion that nearly 72,000 other people declared under the entire program, and more than the $22.7 billion estimated net worth of India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

It is unclear why the family of four submitted the multi-billion-dollar sum for the tax amnesty.

The Income Tax department said it has rejected the astonishing disclosure and a probe is on against the to determine the intention behind their false claims.

"Among the declarations received, there were two sets of declarations of high value which were not taken on record in the above figure because these declarations were found to be suspicious in nature being filed by persons of small means," the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"The Department has since commenced inquiries against these declarants to determine the intention behind these false declarations," it said.

Last month, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi shocked the country by abolishing 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, which accounted for 86 percent of the cash in circulation.

The move was aimed at cracking down on the shadow economy, but has brought India's cash economy to a virtual standstill.

The government and the Reserve Bank of India have since taken a slew of measures to ease the pain from its measures, including a tax amnesty scheme for unreported cash which would will charge up to 50 percent in taxes and surcharges.