Income Tax Dept raids Kolkata-based business group

Sep 01, 2022

New Delhi [India], September 1 : The Income Tax Department has raided 28 premises spread in West Bengal and Jharkhand belonging to a prominent Kolkata-based business group engaged in the manufacturing of power transmission and distribution structures, steel structures, steel ERW pipes, and polymer products among others, Union Finance Ministry said on Thursday.
The search and seizure operation by the Income Tax Department was carried out on 24th August 2022.
During the course of the search operation, various methods of tax evasion adopted by the group were unearthed.
"A large number of incriminating evidence in the form of documents and digital data demonstrating booking of bogus expenditure and undisclosed cash sales has been found," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
Moreover, evidence of the use of unaccounted cash for the acquisition of immovable property and unaccounted cash loans, etc. have also been found and seized.
A preliminary analysis of seized evidence reveals that several shell companies have been utilised by the group to provide accommodation entries to its flagship concerns. These shell entities have been found to have routed back the unaccounted money in the guise of share capital/unsecured loan into the business of the group.
In addition, accommodation entries by an entry operator through a web of numerous shell companies aggregating to more than Rs 150 crore have also been detected.
The search action has, so far, led to the detection of a total unaccounted income of more than Rs 250 crore. Further investigations are in progress, the ministry said.