The Income Tax department recently raided a Tamil Nadu-based group engaged in hospitality and theme park business and detected a 'large-scale tax evasion' of more than Rs 400 crore, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said on Monday.
According to people in the know, the raids were conducted on the MGM Group which is promoted by MGM Anand and MGM Maran.
The raids were launched on June 15 at over 40 premises in cities including Chennai, Viluppuram, Coimbatore, and Hyderabad.
"Undisclosed cash of Rs 3 crore and unaccounted gold jewellery worth Rs 2.5 crore have been seized so far," the CBDT, which frames policy for the tax department, said in a statement.
An analysis of the seized documents and digital gadgets "indicates that the assessee group has indulged in large-scale tax evasion exceeding Rs 400 crore by debiting non-genuine purchase bills in the books of account of varied businesses," the statement said.
The CBDT said that the non-genuine purchase bills were either obtained from its regular material suppliers or accommodation entry providers (fake business entry providers).
The seized documents revealed that payments made to the material suppliers via cheques had been received back in "cash" for making "unaccounted" investments and also for other purposes. "The group is also found to be controlling back-office operations of its international chain of hotels from India," it said.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Jun 20, 2022 5:24 PM IST
