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Feb 27, 2020
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With revenues falling, taxmen rake up three-year-old demonetisation cases
Indian jewellers have received surprise tax notices asking them to turn over money they made from customers who scrambled to buy gold after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2016 ban on high-currency notes, according to a dozen jewellers and tax officials.
When Modi announced a sudden ban on Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, 2016 to weed out undeclared cash, clients thronged the store of one Mumbai-based jeweller, clamouring for necklaces, rings, bullion - anything gold.
The jeweller - who asked to only be identified by his surname, Jain, to avoid retribution - said he sold his entire stock at a steep premium that day and pocketed revenue usually earned in two weeks.
Three months ago, he received a tax notice asking for the source of those earnings and ordering him to turn in all revenue made that night, under suspicion that black money was behind the purchase.
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