Dainik Bhaskar group evaded Rs 700 crore tax: Indian tax authorities
Indian income tax authorities tonight said it has found tax "evasion" of Rs 700 crore over six years by the Dainik Bhaskar business group whose leading Hindi newspaper and TV channel were critical of the government's Covid handling.
However, the quantum of tax evasion may be more as the business group has used "multiple layers" and investigations are being carried out to unravel the entire money trail, the Indian finance ministry said in a statement, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
Without naming the business group, the tax authorities said its raid on the group's more than 100 companies found that they have been operating several companies in the names of their employees for booking "bogus expenses and routing of funds."
The taxmen raided the 32 premises of Dainik Bhaskar group, whose businesses span across a range of sectors including media, power, textiles and real estate with a group turnover of more than Rs 6,000 crore per annum, in nine cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bhopal, Indore, Noida and Ahmedabad.
During the search by the income tax authorities, several of the group's employees, whose names were used as shareholders and directors, admitted that they were not aware of such companies and had given their Aadhaar card and digital signature to the employer in good faith, the finance ministry statement said.
Some employees were found to be relatives who had willingly and knowingly signed the papers but had no knowledge or control of the business activities of the companies in which they were supposed to be directors and shareholders, it said.
Such companies have been used for multiple purposes: booking bogus expenses and siphoning off the profits from listed companies, routing of siphoned funds into their closely-held companies to make investments and making of circular transactions, according to the statement.
Cyclical trading and transfer of funds among group companies engaged in unrelated businesses to the tune of Rs 2,200 crore has been found, the statement alleged, adding enquiries have confirmed that these have been "fictitious" transactions without any actual movement or delivery of goods.
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