Income tax sleuths are investigating over 300 entities related to Satyam Computer Services and its founder B Ramalinga Raju in the wake of the Rs 7,800 crore accounting fraud the company is embroiled in. ?We are investigating all companies owned and promoted by the Raju family,? a senior official told FE .
In order to get a better picture of the fraud, the income tax department has asked for financial records of Satyam Computers starting from 2002-03. ?It is a comprehensive investigation and we are probing into all aspects,? the official said.
The income tax department suspects that the company may have inflated its export earnings and also siphoned off funds to shell companies, an official said. Besides, the department is also focussing on tax deducted at source by the company as well as possible benami deals.
The personal income and finances of Satyam founder and former chairman Ramalinga Raju are also under the tax department?s scanner. His tax returns will be scrutinised for possible concealment of income, officials involved in the investigation said.
Meanwhile, the tax department has asked the Hyderabad police to furnish all the documents it had seized relating to Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju?s investments and land assets. Former CBDT Chairman N B Singh, who retired on January 31, had on January 27 said in Mumbai that the department was conducting an independent probe into the Satyam case.
Considering that Raju had confessed to window-dressing Satyam?s books for the last seven years, the IT department has its task cut out. Not only will it have to reassess all of Satyam?s tax returns, but it would also need to look at it in sync with the personal returns filed by Raju and his family.
Moreover, if Satyam had booked excess income, then the department will have to work out whether the firm should get tax refunds for those. Considering the scale of the fraud, the tax sleuths are likely to take considerable time to come up with conclusive findings. Senior officials reckon the IT probe would take another few weeks, after which a final report would be submitted to the Central Board of Direct Taxes to decide on the course of action.