The Income Tax department has claimed to have detected "unaccounted" income of about Rs 400 crore after raids on a major pharmaceutical group based in Hyderabad.
The searches were carried out on February 24 at around 20 locations spread across five states.
Though the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) did not reveal the name of the company in its press statement, sources indicated that the company is MSN Pharma promoted by Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader Manne Goverdhan Reddy from Khairatabad. The chairman of the company is M Satyanarayana Reddy.
The raids were conducted by 20 teams comprising IT officials from Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru on the residences of Goverdhan Reddy, the company’s head office in Sanathnagar and a unit office located at Bachupally.
The CBDT authorities said the pharmaceutical group is engaged in the business of manufacturing of intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and formulations, and majority of its products are exported to European countries and the USA.
"The search has led to unearthing of evidence relating to unaccounted income of around Rs 400 crore, out of which the assessee group has admitted an additional income of Rs 350 crore," the CBDT claimed in a statement.
It added that Rs 1.66 crore cash was also seized during the operation.
"Incriminating evidence in the form of digital media, pen drives, documents, etc. have been found and seized," the CBDT said.
Issues relating to purchases made from bogus and non-existent entities, artificial inflation of certain heads of expenditure, along with suppression of receipts relating to by-product sale were detected.
"Evidence of on-money payment for purchase of lands was also found," it alleged.
Multiple other legal issues were also identified such as personal expenses being booked in the company's books and land purchased by related concerns or individuals below government value, the CBDT said.
