After conducting searches at several premises of Bengaluru-based Micro Labs Ltd, the pharmaceutical company which manufactures Dolo-650 tablet, the Income Tax Department has revealed coming across a large number of incriminating documents in the form of loose sheets and digital data.
“These documents reveal that the group was involved in huge unaccounted sales of pharmaceutical medicines in cash. Large amount of purchases, payments of wages and other expenses were also found to have been made in cash,” the I-T department said without naming the company.
They carried out search and seizure operations on June 29, 2022 on “a group engaged in the business of manufacturing and distribution of pharmaceutical medicines and Real Estate Development.” The taxmen’s search action covered 25 premises in Delhi-NCR and Haryana.
The I-T team has seized unaccounted cash of Rs 4.2 crore and jewellery/bullion worth Rs 4 crore.
Unaccounted cash sales
A key person involved in such transactions has accepted this modus-operandi of unaccounted cash sales of pharmaceutical medicines, including cash receipts through hawala for sale of medicines to Afghanistan, the I-T department said on Friday.
The preliminary analysis of the seized data indicates that such hawala cash receipts amount to around Rs 25 crores. In the case of one pharmaceutical concern dealing in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), surplus stock valued at Rs. 94 crore has been found.
Moreover, this cash raised through unaccounted cash sales has been invested in purchase of immovable properties and in expansion of manufacturing facilities of pharmaceutical medicines.
The taxmen noted that the real estate entities of the group are found to be engaged in out-of-books sale and purchase of properties in cash. Further, the group has also been booking bogus Long Term/ Short Term Capital Losses in the securities market to offset the capital gains earned on such property transactions.
The amount of such bogus losses is estimated to be around Rs 20 crore.
Additionally, the group in question has also floated benami entities to purchase immovable properties in Himachal Pradesh. Further investigations are in progress.
