Bhopal, Feb 24 (IANS): The Income Tax (I-T) Department on Friday conducted surprise inspections at mining offices in four districts of Madhya Pradesh and detected defaults aggregating to over Rs 2,500 crore, sources said.

During the inspections, various issues of non-compliances of provisions of tax collections at source (TCS) under Section 206 of Income Tax Act, 1961, were detected, official sources privy to the development told IANS.

The officials found that no TCS was collected on royalty amount of Rs 1,600 crore, which was collected from a private firm by the district minding office. Similarly, no TCS was collected on the ammount payed by the lessee towards the district mineral foundation (DMF) and national mineral exploration test (NMET), amounting to around Rs 552 crore.

Further, it also found that no TCS was collected on the penalty levied in the cases of illegal mining transportation and storage. The officials also found that district mineral foundation trusts were not filing income returns and audit reports as per the mandatory procedure.

"A total TCS/TDS default of Rs 2,500 crore were detected during the inspections at four districts, and further investigation was underway," a source said.