Govt to probe suspicious tax claims in fresh crackdown against shell companies

To ease their efforts, Pandey has asked both the boards to strategise various measures, including “triangulation of information, maintaining fresh parameters for a risk score, begin excessive use of artificial intelligence machine learning to revamp the systems and to work out high-risk criterion so that system itself red flags suspicious accounts,” said sources.

The move came on the back of a recent tax evasion case involving Manpasand Beverages. Three top executives of Vadodara-based firm were arrested by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) department for creating fake company units and committing tax invasion.

The government has in recent years beefed up its surveillance of dormant and shell companies. With the help of various enforcement and investigative agencies of the government, around 2.26 lakh shell companies were struck off in the first drive in the fiscal year 2014 and 2015. Similarly, 100,150 companies were struck off till November 30, 2018.