Income tax raids at four major steel rolling mills, unaccounted income of ₹300 crore detected

The tax agency on Monday without naming the business group said that it carried out a search and seizure operation on a group of four major steel rolling mills based in Jalna, Maharashtra

The investigation wings of the income tax department raided premises of four major steel rolling mills based in Jalna, carried out searches at 32 premises linked to them and detected an unaccounted income of nearly ₹300 crore.

The investigation wings of the income tax department raided premises of four major steel rolling mills based in Jalna, carried out searches at 32 premises linked to them and detected an unaccounted income of nearly ₹300 crore. (PTI)

The tax agency on Monday without naming the business group said that it carried out a search and seizure operation on a group of four major steel rolling mills based in Jalna, Maharashtra. These companies are engaged in the business of manufacturing steel TMT bars and billets mostly using steel scrap as raw material.

The operation that started on September 23 was conducted in more than 32 premises across Jalna, Aurangabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.

“During the operation, many incriminating documents, loose sheets and other digital evidence were found and seized. This evidence indicates the involvement of the companies in large scale unaccounted financial transactions made outside the regular books of accounts, including inflation of purchases using entry providers, unaccounted cash expenses and investments, etc,” the I-T department said in a statement released on Monday.

The tax officials have also unearthed 12 bank lockers during the search operation. Unaccounted cash of more than ₹2.10 crore and jewellery amounting to ₹1.07 crore have been seized from different premises.

“Evidence detected so far, indicates that, unaccounted income is likely to exceed ₹300 crore and the four companies have already disclosed additional income to the extent of ₹71 crore consequent to the search,” stated Surabhi Ahluwalia, commissioner of income tax (Media & Technical Policy) and official spokesperson, Central Board for Direct Taxes, in the statement.