NEW DELHI: In a multi-city operation, the income tax department conducted searches on Friday on an IT SEZ developer and a prominent stainless-steel supplier based in Chennai, detecting undisclosed income of more than Rs 450 crore. The search operation was carried out at 16 premises located in Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Cuddalore.
“The evidence unearthed include unaccounted assets worth about Rs 100 crore accumulated by the ex-director and his family members of the IT SEZ in the past three years,” the I-T department said. The SEZ developer claimed bogus work-in-progress expenses of about Rs 160 crore in an under-construction project, it added. Bogus expenses claimed by the SEZ developer included capital expenses of Rs 30 crore through consultancy fees and inadmissible interest expenses to the extent of Rs 20 crore.
The I-T department also unearthed transactions of Rs 2,300 crore routed as an investment through Mauritius. "The shares of the SEZ were sold by its erstwhile shareholders, a resident and a non-resident entity, which routed its investment through a Mauritius intermediary, for about Rs 2,300 crore in 2017-18,” tax authorities said. However, the capital gains out of this sale transaction were never disclosed to the I-T department. “Investigation is in progress to determine the undisclosed capital gains in the hands of both the shareholders. Other land transactions and an issue relating to Compulsory Convertible Debentures are also under examination,” according to I-T.