I-T searches on Delhi-based liquor firm for tax evasion

The Income Tax department on Friday conducted searches in several cities on the premises of a Delhi-based liquor manufacturing group on the charges of alleged tax evasion to the tune of Rs 150 crore.

Teams from the IT department swooped down on a total of 13 premises in Delhi, Chandigarh and parts of Punjab and seized Rs 1 crore cash and 4 kg jewellery from the premises of the firm, officials said.

The sleuths are also searching the senior executives of the alcohol manufacturing group, they said.

A son of a former Union minister is also under the department's scanner for being an alleged recipient of the "share capital" worth crores from the funds being investigated for tax evasion, they added.

The firm, a senior tax department official said, is being probed after it was detected that the funds worth about Rs 150 crore were routed by it using the shell companies and it was not reflected in the tax records.

The shell companies are defined as those firms which are set up by nominal paid-up capital, high reserves and surplus on account of receipt of high share premium investment in unlisted companies and no dividend income.

Also, those firms can be called shell who have high cash in hand, private companies as majority shareholders, low turnover and operating income, nominal expenses, nominal statutory payments and stock in trade and minimum fixed asset.