Mangaluru: Officials of the Department of Commercial Taxes conducted raids in three districts on Wednesday and Thursday, and unearthed tax evasion of Rs 103 crore by areca nut traders.

Officials of Commercial Taxes (Enforcement) West Zone, Mangaluru, and Commercial Taxes (Enforcement) South Zone, Bengaluru, raided areca nut traders in Mangaluru, Puttur and Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district; Sirsi, Yellapur and Siddapura in Uttara Kannada district and Sagar in Shivamogga district on Wednesday.

They detected tax evasion of Rs 62 crore. The raids continued on Thursday in Mangaluru, Bantwal, Belthangady and Sirsi, where transactions reflected Rs 42 crore tax evasion, officials said. Joint Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Enforcement) West Zone, Mangaluru, B A Naniappa, said tax evasion of Rs 2.06 was detected in one particular transaction.

“Fake bills were used and a big chunk of areca nut was transported outside the state. We are collecting more information.” During the raid and verification of documents on Thursday, Ismail of H K Industries in Kelthaje near Belthangady tried to prevent officials from discharging their  duties. But the documents were seized with police help. H K Industries had obtained fake bills from Ganesh Prasad Traders in Sirsi to show Rs 4.5 crore worth of areca nut purchases.