Rs 224 Crore: Pune’s Biggest Recovery Of Undisclosed Income At This Unicorn Stuns Everyone

• The Income Tax department raided 23 locations of a unicorn startup group engaged in wholesale and retail of construction materials.
• The officials found undisclosed income worth Rs. 224.25 crore in the company. 

The Income Tax department has ended its raids across 23 locations of a unicorn startup group based in Pune and Thane. The unicorn is primarily engaged in wholesale and retail of construction materials.

The income tax department has found undisclosed income worth Rs. 224.25 crore in a Pune-based start-up company. The officials state that this was the biggest find in any Pune company, especially in a start-up.

A unicorn company raided

A senior official informed that the start-up is a unicorn, the company’s valuation is over a billion dollars, and has a presence throughout India. The unicorn’s annual turnover is estimated to be over Rs. 5,000 crore.

Incriminating evidence found

During the operation, the team claimed to have confiscated incriminating evidence including hard copies and digital data related to sham purchases, obtained accommodation entries and unaccounted cash expenditure of over Rs. 400 crore.

Company directors questioned

The directors of the concerned start-up were questioned about this when they declared an additional income of Rs. 224.25 crore, an income tax official said. The company has now agreed to pay the tax liability.

The group has a presence throughout India. A total of 23 premises of the company were raided across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh during the search operation on March 9.

The seizure operations also revealed that the company had gained large foreign funding via Mauritius. This was done by issuing shares at exorbitantly high premiums.

Shell companies excavated during search

In the meantime, an elaborate hawala network of some Mumbai and Thane-based shell companies was also excavated during the search operation. The shell companies only existed on paper and were created with the sole aim of providing accommodation entries. An initial probe revealed that the total amount of accommodation entries provided by these shell companies is more than Rs. 1,500 crore. Uptil now, unaccounted cash of Rs. 1 crore and jewellery worth Rs. 22 lakh have been confiscated. More investigations are in progress.

Source-https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/i-t-sleuths-search-premises-of-pune-based-unicorn-unearth-undisclosed-income-worth-rs-224-cr-7828009/