Taxmen raid Rolta India offices

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 13 August 2004, 19:30 IST
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MUMBAI: The investigation wing of the I-T department on Thursday carried out a nation-wide raid on the premises of Rolta India, a Rs 300-crore Mumbai-based software company owned by Kamal K Singh. According to a business daily, the company’s premises in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi have been raided. The raids that began at 8 am in Mumbai, where 10 premises were raided, continued till late in the evening. It is learnt that I-T officers have questioned senior executives of the company and recorded their statements under oath. Economic Times, the daily, quoting sources said I-T authorities suspect that the company has concealed income by allegedly creating fictitious assets to claim depreciation. I-T authorities also suspect that the company may have resorted to transactions in the nature of bogus sale and leaseback, a series of convoluted transactions in assets on the basis of which depreciation can be claimed. The existence of bogus expenditure bills used for inflating the expenditure is also being suspected. Tax authorities are also looking at the size of the company’s income generated through export. The I-T authorities declined to comment on the volume of the concealed income, but said a raid is carried out only after they are convinced that a visit at the premises will yield proof of tax evasion. Rolta officials were not available for comment despite repeated attempts. Under the existing provisions in the I-T Act, the concealed income unearthed during a raid attracts tax at the prevailing rate and a penalty, ranging from 100-300% of the concealed income. The minimum penalty leviable on such income is 100%. Also, the I-T authorities are vested with powers to open the assessment of the company for the past six years. The earlier provision for taxing the income unearthed after a raid was to make a block assessment of the income for the past 10 years and levy tax at the rate of 60%.