50 Year Old Farmer fighting for 15 months over Income Tax Notice of Rs.1.6 crore

A 50-year-old farmer in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar area became depressed after receiving a notice from the income tax department in March 2022 demanding that he “pay outstanding dues of Rs 1.6 crore for alleged transactions of over Rs.4 crore from his account in a private bank.”

After having the farmer run from pillar to post for 15 months, a fight that saw him “take the help of medicines for mental trauma,” officials have finally declared that it was a “documentation error by the bank.”

Updesh Tyagi, a native of Faloda village said, “I was in utter disbelief. I am a little farmer who could never imagine making such large transactions. When I attended the I-T department and informed the officials that I had no account with the bank in issue, they demanded that I pay the money as soon as possible or face legal penalties. The officials ultimately began to put pressure on me and paid numerous visits to my home. They made my life a living nightmare.”

He went on to say, “I responded to more than 12 notices and ran around for months, but they only had one answer, that I must pay up. I had to seek medical attention for my mental health because I couldn’t deal with the frequent harassment. I’m not only on medicine for depression, but I’ve also spent over Rs 50,000 on trips to tax offices, legal costs, and letters and affidavits.”

When Tyagi did not receive a satisfactory response, he and a significant number of villagers mounted a demonstration in front of the tax department, prompting authorities to request more time to address the situation.

When asked why the family had to suffer for months because of a tax department error, officials put it on the bank “for entering the wrong Pan number.” According to Rajnish Rastogi, a department officer in Muzaffarnagar, “it was an error on the part of the bank officials as they updated his Pan card details instead of another bank customer’s. We will resolve the situation as quickly as possible.”

Tyagi stated that he is no longer receiving notifications, but he wants a thorough investigation into this matter. “This will be my recompense for months of torture.”