Income Tax Dept raids telecom equipment firm in NCR; claims incriminating messages recovered
The Income Tax Department has conducted raids at the premises of a company engaged in trading of telecom equipment as the CBDT claimed on Tuesday that it is examining alleged bogus claims worth crores made by the company to evade taxes.
The searches were launched on Monday at its five premises, including the corporate office, residence of foreign director, residence of company secretary, accounts person and the cash handler of a foreign subsidiary company in India, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.
It added some "incriminating" WhatsApp chats have also been recovered.
The CBDT frames policy for the tax department.
"Issue of tax liability of hundreds of crores has been identified so far."
"Unaccounted cash of more than ₹62 lakh has been found at the premises and three lockers have also been found during the course of the search, which have been placed under restraint," it claimed.
It added that the searches are still continuing against the company that is not only engaged in trading of telecom equipment but also installation and servicing of these items for various telecom players in India.
"Examination of books of the assessee company shows large discrepancies. It has been found that the company has failed to deduct TDS (tax deducted at source) on provisions made by them for expenses.
During financial year 2014-15 and 2015-16 the company failed to deduct TDS on such provisions amounting to more than ₹120 crore," it said.
The company has claimed expenses of more than Rs 100 crore on account of provisions created by it for doubtful debts in 2017-18 fiscal, the CBDT said.
"Similarly, expenses of hundreds of crores have been claimed over the years on account of provision for doubtful debts and provision for doubtful loans and advances."
Admissibility of such expenses is being examined," it said.
It claimed the raids found that the purchases of the assessee company were entirely from its holding company.
"Examination of import bills vis-a-vis sale bills show that there is huge gross profit (approximately 30 per cent) on trading of these items, however, the company has been booking huge losses over the years," it alleged.
It is thus evident, the statement said, that losses are being booked by thecompany through bogus expenses in respect of services provided by it. Few such recipients have been identified in whose case, substantial expenses have been booked over the years.
"These entities have been found to be non-existent at their addresses," the statement said.
It claimed "incriminating evidence has been detected in WhatsApp chats of the CEO, CFO and other key persons indicating illegal payments to telecom companies".
WhatsApp chats also reveal payment of commission to a person based in Australia for purchase of shares of a telecom company in India."
"These transactions are being examined further," it said.
Evidence in the form of electronic data and physical papers, found during the searches show that unaccounted money, running into several crores every year, has been brought back into the books in the form of bogus scrap sales, etc, it claimed.
"Documents found from the electronic data of key persons, including the foreign CFO, show that the employees of the company were engaged in illegal currency exchange from Rupee to RMB."
"They were also found to be engaged in large scale illegal trade of medicines from India to China," the CBDT said.
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