Officials of Sales Tax Intelligence raided a few wholesale readymade garment shops on Broadway in the city and their outlets in Paravoor and Tripunithura on Wednesday on suspicion that there were attempts to evade tax.

An official of the sales tax department said that with the Onam sales beginning this week, large-scale tax evasion was possible, especially with large quantities of products being brought in trains.

Some documents relating to the stock position have been seized and the stocks in these shops are being verified to ascertain whether the accounts match the actual stocks in the shops.

Instances of shops not issuing actual bills but just estimates had also been detected, the official added.

Traders on Market Road expressed their protest against the raid by downing their shutters in the afternoon. A spokesman for the traders said the raids were unjustified. He said they were bearing the brunt of the ongoing construction work in the city and the business was already low. The merchants were expecting the volume to pick up during the Onam season and the raid had come as a set back, he added.