The Income Tax department is carrying out a massive search operation at several locations of real estate firm Embassy Group including Bengaluru, Gurgram and Mumbai offices to probe alleged tax evasion, sources said.
The residences of key officials of the Embassy Group are also being searched.
“There are almost five sets of searches being conducted by tax officers on different business groups in different sectors such as real estate, liquor and garments. Embassy Group is one of the entities,” an official said.
“This is a routine income tax inquiry — Embassy Group has always acted and will continue to act in accordance with the provisions of all applicable laws and regulations while maintaining the highest standards of corporate governance. We have extended our complete compliance to the relevant authorities. We would like to assure our stakeholders that business continues as usual,” Embassy Group said in a statement.
The news impacted the shares of Embassy Office Parks REITs, which closed at Rs 390.71 on Wednesday, down 0.76% from the previous closing price on the BSE.
Armed with data analytics, the I-T department has carried out several search and survey actions in recent months.
On March 23, the income tax officers searched about 40 premises of the country’s largest two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp as part of a tax evasion investigation against the firm.
Even though tax revenue from such search action generated Rs 5,000-6,000 crore annually, it has a deterrence effect on other taxpayers, leading to increased compliance.
