Locker Business Not So Safe Anymore

After a string of income-tax department raids on private lockets and safety vaults in the metropolitans of Delhi and Kolkata has sent vault providers into a tizzy. While top locker service providers have intensified their protocol for customers, several small vault owners are shutting shop permanently.

Private locker business was hit very badly after the de-monetization wave in 2016, but now whatever little business vault providers were making has also collapsed in light of these recent raids. The I-T department has honed in on private locker providers after a raid earlier this year on a vaulted space (with over 600 lockers) in Vardaan Market, Kolkata. A similar raid was also carried out in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk area, where they recovered unaccounted cash worth Rs 25 crore. Both the vaults lacked proper KYC documentation, making it difficult for taxmen to identify the lessees.

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