The Income Tax Department has trained its sights on the carbon credits trading business in the country with a view to crack down on tax evasion in the sector, which has been estimated at Rs 1,000 crore.

The department has now decided to keep a tab on the trade by putting its intelligence wing on the job to gather information on entities involved in trading carbon credits and pass on the relevant data to I-T investigation and international taxation wings for taking action against tax evasion in this sector.

A preliminary study by the I-T Department found that large companies listed on the stock exchanges are not exactly ensuring taxes against the profits out of the sale of carbon credits and are putting the money earned in other businesses. India is one of the largest producers of carbon credits in the world.

“The Directors of Income Tax (DIT) of the elite Central Information Branch (CIB) of the I-T Intelligence wing will be the nodal agency to deal with all the relevant information of carbon credits business and transactions,” said an official.

The DITs, who are commissioner-rank officials of the department, are also being trained in all aspects of carbon credit taxation at various training institutions, right from the basics to trading on stock exchanges worldwide, the officer said.

Related Topics