The Income Tax Department on Monday carried out limited verification exercise at the office premises of the Zee Group and Larsen and Toubro to look into their bogus inputs about tax credit, official said.
A senior IT official, requesting anonymity told IANS, "There are no searches or raids, but we are carrying out limited verification exercise at the offices of the Larsen and Toubro and Zee group as we had information that they had claimed bogus input tax credit."
The official said that it is basically a follow up exercise and there is limited action on both the groups.
"We are covering these group and the companies related to these groups on account of this bogus input taxes," the official added.
The official, however, refused to share the details of the offices where the verification process is being carried out.
As per reports, the IT department received information on this from the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) of the GST department, which is the apex organisation that looks into collecting and disseminating information and intelligence on matters regarding evasion of the Goods and Service Tax (GST). The DGGI, as per the website, comes under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs of the Revenue department, Ministry of Finance.
The current searches are being conducted to verify whether both companies made bogus inputs for tax credit.
Input tax credit is availed by companies and businesses to reduce the tax outgo on the final product or service by claiming tax it may have already paid on the inputs for that product. So when you buy something from your supplier, you pay taxes on the purchase and then while selling the final product, tax is collected and the same is adjusted with the tax you already paid earlier. The difference between these two is what is eventually paid to the government as GST.
According to an Economic Times report, at least 15 locations of the Zee group are currently being checked or verified by the Income Tax Department. This action is reportedly expected to continue till evening.
A Zee spokesperson told some media outlets that officials from the tax department have visited its offices with some queries and that concerned officials are extending cooperation and providing required information.
(This is a developing story)
