I-T raids on infra firms unearth huge fraud
HYDERABAD: The income tax department has unearthed undisclosed income ranging from Rs 125 crore to Rs 300 crore in raids conducted in several major infrastructure companies in the state in the past few months.
Top sources disclosed that after doing their homework, which included gathering vital information, sleuths began conducting raids on the companies, with some searches lasting for days.
'Certain infrastructure companies were found to be invariably fudging their accounts by making bogus entries of sub-contractors and purchases,' the sources said.
Going by the sheer nature of their business, which mainly includes getting major government contracts, these companies allegedly resorted to inflation of expenditure by naming some bogus sub-contractors.
The meticulous raids, which were kept a closely-guarded secret, were carried out in at least six firms, all of them based out of Andhra Pradesh.
'All the firms have now declared undisclosed income running into several hundreds of crores. The investigation is still continuing and we expect more undeclared income to be surrendered,' official sources said.
When contacted, income tax director-general (investigation) Pervela Raghu chose to say that the department was just doing its job. 'There are so many companies and there is a common thread,' he said.
'The IT department smelt a rat because of the major projects given away during the regime of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, beginning with Jalayagnam when huge mobilisation advances were given,' the sources said and added that a lot of planning and gathering of credible inputs had been done for several months before they launched the raids.
'The department has cracked the modus operandi of these companies and the details of all the bogus sub-contractors and entries are still under scrutiny,' they said.
The sources, however, said that the department may not be satisfied by the declaration of undisclosed income and is making further enquiries. They hinted at more such raids in the future.
News Posted: 25 December, 2012
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