Unaccounted Consultation Fee in Cash: Hospital, 52 doctors under Income Tax Lens

Indore: A premier hospital in the area including 52 doctors associated with it are now under the radar of the Income tax department on account of evading huge amount of taxes by forcing patients to pay high fee amounts in cash and then not accounting for the same .

This came after an IT survey revealed  that a large part of the fees being taken by the patient in the hospital was taken in cash and the total account was kept in a raw register.

During the inquiry, it was found that 52 doctors associated with Shankutala Devi Hospital and Research Centre were allegedly indulged in compelling the patients to pay their portion of fees in cash for which they were not provided bill slip.The hospital was directed to seal cash in envelopes before delivering them to the doctors,

The IT officials will share the names of the identified doctors with their concerned assessing officers for detailed inquiry and quatification of the case. This may lead cases to be reopened for the last six years under the IT Act.

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Saagar Shrivastava, the Deputy Commissioner income tax told the TOI, "A list of 52 leading doctors of Indore who indulge in this practice in collusion with the hospital was prepared by the I-T officials."

The Deputy Commissioner informed TOI, "Visiting consulting doctors, who referred patients to the hospital, gave strict directions to the hospital management to include only a small portion of their actual fees in the bill provided to the patient."

The IT sleuth seized corroborative evidence such as registers containing cash paid to doctors, cash amount mentioned separately in kaccha receipts along with name of the doctor tagged to the proper bill and even envelopes containing the cash along with the name of the doctor were found during the survey.

Bhaskar further reports that tt was also found that the hospital management was allegedly reducing income by informing bogus expenses. The hospital was told to pay salaries in the name of bogus workers, while they were not an employee, similarly, the income of pathology was also given less

"The hospital management also confided to this malpractice, and accepted having instructed its staff to destroy all such records for older years once payments were delivered to the doctors," the IT officer further informed.

In a conversation with TOI, Dr Anil Vijayvargiya, head of the hospital and also the president of city chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) informed that Income Tax team has been provided necessary documents to show the transactions carried out by the hospital.

"Patients sometimes pay doctors' fees in cash. The same was forwarded to the doctors in envelopes. We have given documentary evidence of transactions demanded by the income tax team," Dr Vijayvargiya further added.