E-Paper
I-T raid on 4 steel mills in Maharashtra: Rs200 crore in unaccounted income
The I-T department carried out a search and seizure operation on Thursday (September 23) on the four 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
Pune The Income Tax department has detected unaccounted income of ₹200 crore following raids on a group of four major steel rolling mills based in Maharashtra, the CBDT claimed on Monday
The Income Tax department carried out a search and seizure operation on Thursday (September 23) on the four 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 was conducted in 32 premises spread across Jalna, Aurangabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.
The I-T department alleged that during the course of the search and seizure, many incriminating documents and other digital evidence was seized. The evidence clearly 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.
“The evidence found also indicates the laundering of a substantial amount of unaccounted income earned by the companies in the guise of share premiums and unsecured loans using shell companies,” the Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a statement.
“Evidence for unaccounted purchase in excess of ₹200 crore has been found. A huge quantity of unaccounted stock was also found in the factory premises of the companies,” read the statement.
As many as 12 bank lockers were unearthed during the search operations, the statement claimed, adding, “Unaccounted cash worth ₹2.10 crore and jewellery amounting to ₹1.07 crore has 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.”
