Hero Moto skids 6% as I-T dept finds Rs 800 cr siphoned off funds

In the past six trading days, the stock has declined 11 per cent after media reported that the I-T department said Hero MotoCorp made over Rs 1,000 crore in bogus expenses

Shares of Hero MotoCorp skidded 6 per cent to Rs 2,151.60 on the BSE in Friday's intra-day trade on reports that income tax (I-T) department has found Rs 800 crore siphoned off via shell firms. The stock of the two-wheeler major was trading close to its 52-week low of Rs 2,148 touched on March 8, 2022.

"An expenditure of more than Rs 800 crore on the books of Hero MotoCorp was not for purposes of business but made for a service from an event management company, which allegedly siphoned off the amount, according to an income-tax department probe. The siphoning off was done through shell firms," a report by Business Standard said. CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT

In the past six trading days, the stock has declined 11 per cent ever since reports emerged of an I-T raid at Hero MotoCorp's premises in Delhi.

On its part, Hero MotoCorp clarified on Tuesday, March 29, that officials from the Income Tax department visited the company's offices in the previous week. "The Company has provided all support and cooperation, necessary documents and data to the authorities and will continue to do so if required, it said. Hero MotoCorp is a law-abiding corporate, with robust internal financial controls and its financial statements are duly audited," the company said.

Separately, Hero MotoCorp has launched a new variant of its scooter in the 125 cc segment namely Hero Destiny 125 XTEC with ex-showroom price of Rs 79,900 with regular variant being offered from Rs 69,900. XTEC variants comes with a host of new features which include Hero’s revolutionary i3S Technology (Idle Stop-Start System), front USB charger, New Digi Analogue Speedometer with Bluetooth connectivity with call and SMS alerts, Side-Stand Engine cut off and Seat Backrest among others.

Also, in a separate regulatory exchange filing, Hero MotoCorp informed exchange about promoter & promoter group buying 46,100 shares of the company. With the purchase of these shares, the promoter and promoter group shareholding in the Company will increase from 34.75 per cent to 34.78 per cent, the company said.