IT dept detects Rs 400-cr black income after raids on Hyderabad-based pharma group

 The Income Tax Department has detected "unaccounted" income of about Rs 400 crore after raids on a major pharmaceutical group based in Hyderabad, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Monday. The searches were carried out on February 24 at around 20 locations spread across five states. The CBDT said the pharmaceutical group is engaged in the business of manufacturing intermediates, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and formulations, and the majority of its products are exported to European countries and the USA.

"The search has led to unearthing of evidence relating to unaccounted income of around Rs 400 crore, out of which the assessee group has admitted an additional income of Rs 350 crore," the CBDT claimed in a statement.

It added that Rs 1.66 crore cash was also seized during the operation.

"Incriminating evidence in the form of digital media, pen drives, documents, etc. have been found and seized," the CBDT said.

The statement said digital evidence was gathered from SAP-ERP software.

"Issues relating to purchases made from bogus and non-existent entities, artificial inflation of certain heads of expenditure, along with suppression of receipts relating to by-product sale were detected.Evidence of on-money payment for purchase of lands was also found," it alleged.

Multiple other legal issues were also identified such as personal expenses being booked in the company's books and land purchased by related concerns or individuals below government value, the CBDT said.