I-T Dept raids steel rolling mills in Maha; detects unaccounted income of over Rs 300 cr

The Finance Ministry stated on Monday that the Income Tax Department on September 23 had carried out a search and seizure operation on a group of four major steel rolling mills based in Jalna, Maharashtra. The I-T department had detected unaccounted income of over Rs 300 crore after conducting the raids.

The operation was conducted in more than 32 premises spread across Jalna, Aurangabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata, the Finance Ministry noted in an official statement. It added that the companies are engaged in the business of manufacturing steel TMT bars and billets mostly using steel scrap as raw material.

During the operation, the I-T department discovered and seized many incriminating documents, loose sheets and other digital evidence. According to the statement, the evidence found 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, etc.

The Finance Ministry noted that the evidence found also indicates the laundering of substantial amount of unaccounted income earned by the companies in the guise of share premium and unsecured loans using shell companies.

"Evidence for unaccounted purchase in excess of Rs.200 crore has been found. Huge quantity of unaccounted stock was also found in the factory premises of the companies," read the statement.

Unaccounted cash of more than Rs 2.10 crore and jewellery amounting to Rs 1.07 crore was seized from different premises. The I-T department also unearthed 12 bank lockers during the search operation.

As per the ministry, the evidence collected so far indicates that the total unaccounted income is likely to exceed Rs 300 crore. The four companies disclosed additional income to the extent of Rs 71 crore following the search operation.

Edited by Mohammad Haaris Beg

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