The income tax department has detected fraud involving the unauthorized use of permanent account numbers (PAN) to claim House Rent Allowance (HRA) even though they are not genuinely renting a home. This misuse has been detected in high-value cases, exceeding Rs 10 lakh.
The cases were first discovered when authorities found alleged rent receipts of around Rs 1 crore linked to an individual. Further investigations showed that the people whose PAN numbers were misused for claiming rental income were not aware of these transactions.
The income tax department is looking into people misusing PAN numbers for tax deductions. They are focusing on cases where employees from specific companies are using the same PAN for benefits. Tax officials are going after those who made false claims to get back the tax, which could result in fines, interest, and even legal action in serious situations.