New Delhi, July 14 -- The Income Tax department has launched a sweeping verification drive to expose fraudulent tax benefit claims filed by assessees, often with the assistance of professional intermediaries, in what the authorities described as an organised racket to abuse tax incentives.

These rackets are operated by certain people who prepare income tax returns (ITR) and intermediaries who file them, said an official statement from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Taxpayers are often lured into these fraudulent schemes with promises of inflated refunds in return for a commission.

Employees of multinational companies, public sector units, government bodies, academic institutions, and entrepreneurs are among those implicated, ...