Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 18th November, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in West Bengal

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 16.11.2021 on a prominent Kolkata based group engaged in manufacturing of cement and real estate. The search action covered 24 premises spread over Kolkata, Delhi and places in the states of Assam and Meghalaya.

A large number of incriminating evidences in the form of documents and digital data showing evasion of huge amount of unaccounted income of the group have been found and seized. These evidences indicate evasion of taxable income adopting various malpractices such as, suppression of production, unaccounted and under-invoicing of sales, inflation of cost of purchases using bogus parties and unaccounted expenditure incurred in cash. Evidence of receipt of on-money in cash on sale of flats, by a group concern, has also been unearthed. Further analysis of seized evidences reveals that many paper companies are run by the group to provide accommodation entries to its flagship concern.

During the search proceedings, incriminating evidences containing transaction of unexplained unsecured loans, bogus commission paid, and unsubstantiated share capital and share premium received through shell companies, have also been found and seized.

Firms of the group were also found to be run in the names of persons/employees who are persons of small means. While these employees were earning meagre salaries, payments running into crores of rupees were being made to such firms.  These firms are found to be operating from the factory premise of the group. 

The search action has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 1.30 crore. 6 bank lockers have been placed under restraint. The search action, so far, has led to detection of total unaccounted income around Rs. 200 crore.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 17th November, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Delhi and Haryana

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 09.11.2021 in the case of a Fintech company providing instant short term personal loan through Mobile App. The searches were conducted on the business and residential premises in Delhi and Gurugram.

During the search, it was revealed that the company has been allegedly charging very high processing fee at the time of disbursement of loans. This results into effective higher burden of compensation on the borrowers.  The said company is held by a group based in Cayman Island, ultimately controlled by an individual of a neighboring country. The company has brought in India nominal initial capital by way of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) but took substantial working capital loans from Indian banks. The business model of the company results in high rotation of capital which is evidenced by turnover of Rs. 10,000 crore in its first year of operation.

It is seen that repatriation of about Rs. 500 crore has been made by it to its overseas group companies under the pretext of buying of services in two years. However, evidence gathered during the search has revealed that such remittances made to the group companies are either highly inflated or non-genuine. Evidences found also indicate that internal web-based application for lending business was controlled from outside India. During the search proceedings, statements of key persons including foreign nationals have been recorded. 

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 3^rd November, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Karnataka

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on one of the leading groups of Karnataka, engaged in the civil construction of roads and irrigation projects, on 28.10.2021 at various premises located in North Karnataka.

The search operation has revealed that this group has been suppressing its profits by booking bogus expenses in purchase of materials, labour expenses and payment to subcontractors.

Various incriminating documents including digital evidences indicating non-genuine claim of such expenses have been found and seized. Analysis of the same shows that unaccounted cash has been received by the key group person from such vendors/ suppliers of materials. It was also found that their own relatives/friends/employees were used as conduits in the name of subcontractors who neither executed any work nor did they have the capability/capacity to execute the work. The assessee group has been generating unaccounted cash from these transactions.

The search action has led to detection of unaccounted income of more than Rs. 70 crore which has been admitted as undisclosed income by the assessee group.

Further investigations are in progress.

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(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 2nd November, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Tamil Nadu

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations in Tamil Nadu in the case of a group engaged in the manufacturing of animal feeds, poultry farming, edible oils and export of egg products. The search action in the group was initiated on 27.10.2021 covering 40 premises located in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

During the course of the search operation, several incriminating documents and materials in the form of electronic data have been found and seized. These seized documents indicate that the group is involved in suppressing its income by different ways such as inflating expenses including booking bogus purchases, by under invoicing of sales and also by non-reflecting scrap/by-products sales in the regular books of accounts. The analysis of seized documents also shows that unaccounted income so generated has been invested in acquisition and construction of various immovable properties and also incurred in meeting unaccounted expenses.

The search action has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 3.3 crore and detection of unaccounted income exceeding Rs. 300 crore.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Ministry of Finance

Department of Revenue

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 1st November, 2021         

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Bihar and Jharkhand

The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operation on a prominent road construction contractor in Bihar and Jharkhand. The search action was initiated on 27.10.2021 at various premises located in Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and West Bengal.

The searches revealed that the group has been suppressing its profits by inflating expenses on purchase of materials. Such excess material is sold in the market in cash but cash so generated remains unaccounted. 

It has been also found that the group has indulged in obtaining accommodation entries for inflating other business expenses. Incriminating documents such as handwritten diaries have been seized from the premises of commission agents who have been assisting the assessee group in these dubious practices. These seized documents carry evidences of unaccounted cash generation and movement of material. The search operation has further revealed that the group is also suppressing contractual receipts and service income. It was further seen that the group is not maintaining proper books of accounts, including supporting documents like bills and vouchers.

 Various incriminating documents recovered and seized during the search indicate the movement of unaccounted cash between different locations for its investment in immovable properties at various locations and cash expenses of personal nature. It has been detected during the search operation that the commission agents and suppliers of bogus bills have also evaded tax on crores of income as they have indulged in providing accommodation entries to other parties as well. 

The search action has resulted in seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs 5.71 crore. Ten bank lockers have been placed under restraint. Investment made in fixed deposits, etc. of about Rs. 60 crore is under verification. The search action has led to the detection of unaccounted income to the tune of about Rs. 100 crore. 

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT