Income text dept raids Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company, seizes Rs 142 cr

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 9 (ANI): The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seized cash over Rs 142 crore, informed the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Official Spokesperson.
According to the CBDT official spokesperson, the search operation took place on October 6 on a major Pharmaceutical group based out of Hyderabad and the unaccounted income unearthed is estimated to be in the range of about Rs 550 crore till now.
This Pharmaceutical group is engaged in the business of manufacturing intermediates, Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and formulations. The majority of the products are exported to foreign countries as the USA, Europe, Dubai and other African countries, it said.
The official further informed the search operation was carried out at about 50 locations in 6 States. During the searches, hideouts were identified where the second set of books of accounts and cash were found.
Incriminating evidence in the form of digital media, pen drives, documents and other items have been found and seized. Incriminating digital evidence was gathered from SAP @ ERP software maintained by the assessee group.
The issues relating to discrepancies in purchases made from bogus and non-existent entities and artificial inflation of certain heads of expenditure were detected.
Further, evidence of on-money payment for the purchase of lands was also found and various other legal issues were also identified such as personal expenses being booked in the company's books and land purchased by related parties below government registration value.
During the search, several bank lockers have been found, out of which 16 lockers have been operated.
Further investigations and quantification of undisclosed income detected is in progress. (ANI)