Satyam paid Rs 186.91 crore as tax over seven years on fictitious interest income on non-existent fixed deposits, said the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in its report on the accounting scam in the IT firm.
Satyam Computer Services, under the leadership of its founder B Ramalinga Raju, paid excess tax on fictitious interest income from 2000-01 to 2007-08 on non-existent fixed deposits to prevent any “systematic falsification of accounts” from getting detected, said the SFIO report, the investigation arm of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Satyam, in the centre of the biggest accounting fraud in the country ever, is alleged to have shown fake fixed deposits of Rs 3,318.37 crore on its books of account, while the company had FDs worth only Rs 9.96 crore.
“The amount of excess taxes paid by the company between the financial year 2000-01 and 2007-08 is found to be Rs 186.91 crore, as worked out by investigation,” the SFIO said in its report.
Noting that the Raju brothers (B Ramalinga Raju and B Rama Raju) were aware that no tax was payable on the false interest income, the report said “they deliberately misused the funds of the company to the detriment of its shareholders in making payment of taxes which were not due”.
