mumbai in a bid to overcome a severe cash crunch many companies are understood to have used proceeds out of tax deducted at source tds and thereby defaulted in depositing the same with the mumbai incometax departmentthis is the observation of it officials who have conducted a series of survey on about 60 companies including mncs over the past fortnight as part of a drive to plug the leakages in revenue those who were subjected to a survey include a shipping agent a state utility a television channel and a number of private life and general insurance companiesthe surveys have resulted in disclosure of unpaid tds to the tune of rs 150 crore the department has collected rs 50 crore so far it succeeded in collecting over rs 80 lakh following the standalone survey last week on a shipping agent tds collection from mumbai has crossed rs 32000 crore according to an estimate made a two days ago the tds default attracts a penalty of 100 of the amount involved along with interest our immediate task is to collect the revenue due to us therefore we have asked the defaulters to pay up immediately we will consider other issues only after the amount due is paid to the department an it source said companies have been using these funds for other purposes thinking that they could make the tds payment later along with interest we have told them firmly to pay up or face prosecutionthe survey is a milder version of incometax raid under a survey officials are restricted to collecting information and examining documents however a survey is an effective tool as it results in disclosure of actual income of the taxpayer the department is mainly focusing on companies that have collected tds but not deposited the same with the department in the case of mncs the department is investigating companies that have not deducted tds before making payments to indian entities with whom they have carried out transactions