Going a step further in its crackdown on tax evaders, the octroi department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has filed a criminal suit against seven banks in the city for evading octroi worth Rs 17.66 crore out of which ICICI Bank alone has to pay Rs 14 crore.

The seven banks include ICICI, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Mahindra and two branches of the Corporation Bank, located in Shivajinagar and Sarasbaug. The civic body has also decided to attach properties of four out of the seven banks.

Chief of PMC's octroi department Rajendra Muthe said, "We had identified 39 banks in the city and two post offices that deal with gold coins. They bring gold coins from Mumbai, which comes from overseas. Out of these, twenty banks have informed us that they did not deal in gold."

"The seven banks evaded octroi of Rs 17.66 crore, for which we have registered police complaint against them after serving them notices," he said.Out of the total tax evaded, the biggest chunk comes from ICICI - Rs 14 crore followed by Rs 1.6 crore from Bank of India, Rs 1.3 from Bank of Baroda, Rs 6 lakh from both the branches of Corporation Bank, Rs 50 lakh from IoB and Rs 40.72 from Kotak Mahindra.

Muthe also said that the civic body had acted against Tara Jewellers for evading tax on jewellery.

"They had put up the jewellery for exhibition at Ashish Plaza. When our squad checked all the jewellery and cross-checked the octroi paid for it, they found that while the total goods was worth Rs 1.55 crore, octroi was paid only for jewellery worth Rs 1.13 crore. Thus octroi on goods worth Rs 40 lakh was not paid. Therefore, the jeweller had been served a notice for paying Rs 11 lakh as amount including fine."

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