IT raid on Ramky Group; detects \'artificial\' loss of Rs 1,200cr

Vijayawada: An income-tax raid on Hyderabad-based Ramky Group properties, has led to the detection of an “artificial” loss of nearly Rs1,200 crore. Based on the seizure of various incriminating documents, its entities and associates were questioned.

“They have admitted to possess unaccounted income of Rs 300 crore and agreed to pay due taxes,” the I-T department said in a media release issued here on Friday.

The release said it had carried out a search and seizure operation on July 6 on Ramky Group engaged in real estate, construction, waste management and infrastructure works.

“The IT officials found many incriminating documents and loose sheets and seized them. These indicated involvement of the group in unaccounted transactions,” it said.

“The group had sold a majority of its stakes from one of its concerns to a non-resident entity based in Singapore and earned huge capital gain in the financial year 2018-19. It had devised various colourable schemes by means of entering into a series of share purchase/sale/non-arm’s length valued subscription and subsequent bonus issuance with related parties, creating a loss which was set off against the capital gains earned.”

Officials recovered incriminating evidence/documents indicating that the loss was artificially created to set off the respective capital gains, the IT release said.

The officials found that the assessee had incorrectly claimed bad debts of Rs 288 crore on account of related party transactions and set them off against the profits earned. They noticed documents relating to the artificial/incorrect claims and unaccounted cash transactions with the associates of the group during the search and the officials are examining these, the release added.