Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 1st March, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Hyderabad

The Income Tax Department carried out search & seizure operations on 24.02.2021on a major Pharmaceutical group based out of Hyderabad.  This Pharmaceutical group is engaged in the business of manufacturing of intermediates, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and formulations.  Majority of the total manufactured products are exported to various countries i.e. USA / Europe.  The search operation was carried out at about 20 locations in 5 States. 

Searches have resulted in seizure of cash amounting to Rs. 1.66 crore. During the search action incriminating evidence in the form of digital media, pen drives, documents, etc. have been found and seized. Incriminating digital evidencesweregathered from SAP @ ERP software maintained by the assessee group.

During these searches, issues relating to purchases made from bogus and non-existent entities, artificial inflation of certain heads of expenditure, alongwith suppression of receipts relating to by-product sale were detected.  Further, evidenceof on-money payment for purchase of lands was also found.  Multiple other legal issues were also identified such as personal expenses being booked in the company’s books and land purchased by related concerns / individuals below govt. SRO value.

The search has led to unearthing of evidence relating to unaccounted income of around Rs.400 croreout of which the assessee group has admitted an additional income of Rs.350 crore.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

 

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 27th February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Tamil Nadu

The Income Tax Department conducted searches on a prominent business group   located in Chennai on 26.02.2021. Search was conducted at 11 premises and surveys in 9 premises of the group in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Kolkata. This business group is engaged in the business of manufacture and sale of Tiles and Sanitary-ware and are leaders in Tiles business in South India.

In the course of search, unaccounted sale and purchase of tiles were detected.  Due to the efforts of the search team, details of unaccounted transactions were unearthed in the secret office and the software maintained in the cloud.  In fact, it was found that the transactions to the extent of 50% were out of books. Considering the previous turnover, the suppression of income may be in the range of Rs 120 crore.  This is in addition to Rs 100 crore of undisclosed income introduced by the group as share premium through shell companies.

Total undisclosed income detected so far comes to Rs. 220 crore. Cash of around Rs 8.30 crore was also found and seized.

Search action is still on & investigations are in progress.

The Department is fully prepared to check and monitor the role of money in influencing voters. It remains committed to track the generation of unaccounted cash and its movement in Tami Nadu and Puducherry.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

(Department of Revenue)

(CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES)

NOTIFICATION

New Delhi, the 26th February, 2021

S.O. 964(E).—In exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020 (3 of 2020), the Central Government hereby makes the following amendments in the notification of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, (Department of Revenue), number 85/2020, dated the 27th October, 2020, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II, Section 3, Sub-section (ii), vide number S.O. 3847(E), dated 27th October, 2020, namely:––

In the said notification,––

(i) in clause (a), for the figures, letters and words “28th day of February, 2021” the figures, letters and words “31st day of March, 2021” shall be substituted;

(ii) in clause (b), for the figures, letters and words “31st day of March, 2021” the figures, letters and words “30th day of April, 2021” shall be substituted; and

(iii) in clause (c), for the figures, letters and words “1st day of April, 2021” the figures, letters and words “1^st day of May, 2021” shall be substituted.

[Notification No. 09/2021/ F.No. IT(A)/01/2020-TPL]

SHEFALI SINGH, Under Secy., Tax Policy & Legislation Division

Note: The principal notification was published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II Section 3, Sub-section (ii) dated the 27th October, 2020 vide number S.O. 3847(E), dated 27th October, 2020 and was subsequently amended by notification number S.O. 4804(E), dated 31st December, 2020 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II Section 3, Sub-section (ii) dated the 31st December, 2020 and notification number S.O. 471(E), dated 31st January, 2021 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-II Section 3, Subsection (ii) dated the 31st January, 2021.

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 22nd February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Pune

Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 17.02.2021 on a group based in Sangamner, Pune at 34 different locations across Maharashtra. The group entities are largely engaged in packaging and sale of tobacco and related products, generation and distribution of power, sale of FMCGs, and real estate development. 

During the course of the search operation, hand written and excel sheets maintained on computer revealed unrecorded cash sale transactions amounting to Rs. 243 crore related to sale of tobacco. In addition to this, action on some dealers in tobacco products revealed further unrecorded sale by them amounting to Rs. 40 croreapproximately.

The group is also accepting and paying cash over and above the registration value in transactions relating to real estate. Evidence of transactions amounting to Rs. 18 crorewas found in this regard. Issues relating to violations of section 50C of the Income-tax Act, 1961 amounting to Rs. 23crore have also been found.

During the course of the search operation, profit on unrecorded transactions of sale of real estate amounting to Rs. 9crore has been accepted by the assessee. Seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 1crore has been made. Total undisclosed income amounting to Rs. 335 crore has been detected so far.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT

Government of India

Department of Revenue

Ministry of Finance

Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 22nd February, 2021

PRESS RELEASE

Income Tax Department conducts searches in Bhopal

Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operation on 18.02.2021 at 22 premises of a Betul based Soya products manufacturing group at Betul and Satna in M.P., Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra and Kolkata.

During the course of the search operation, unexplained cash of over Rs. 8 crore and unexplained foreign currency of various countries amounting to more thanRs. 44 lakh have been seized.9 bank lockers have also been found during the search.

The group has introduced unaccounted income to the tune of Rs. 259 croreby way of introduction of Share capital at huge premium from Kolkata based shell companies.

The group has also introduced undisclosed income of Rs. 90 crore in its books of accounts by way of sale of paper investments in shell companies to another set of shell companies of Kolkata. None of the companies was found to be operational at their shown address and the group could not confirm the identity of such paper companies or any of its Directors. Many of these paper companies were found to be struck off by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

During the search, it was seen that bogus loss to the tune of Rs. 52 crore has been claimed by the group to suppress their profits,by indulging in intra-group out-of-exchange contract settlement. Various companies were formed in the name of employees to carry out these transactions, while there was no actual business carried out between them. Directors of these companies were not aware about any such transactions. 

The group has also claimed incorrectLong Term Capital Gains exemption of over Rs. 27 crore on sale of shares of a group entity. Investigations revealed that the purchase of these shares was not genuine as group directors purchased shares of this entity at nominal value from non-existent Kolkata based shell companies.Various types of evidence including chats among key persons of the group reflects unexplained Cash payment and hawala transactions of over Rs. 15 crore.

Incriminating evidence in the form of digital media such as Laptops, hard drives, pen drives etc have been found and seized. From the investigation so far, undisclosed income over Rs. 450 crore has been detected.

Further investigations are in progress.

(Surabhi Ahluwalia)

Commissioner of Income Tax

(Media & Technical Policy)

Official Spokesperson, CBDT