India’s Tax Department probes Infra.Market to uncover bogus purchases, undisclosed earnings – TechCrunch
The Income Tax Department of India said it had found and seized “a large amount of incriminating evidence” suggesting that a unicorn startup based in Pune and Thane, referring to Infra.Market, has “booked bogus deals” and revealed an additional $29.4 million in additional earnings after a rare poll of a startup.
Infra.Market – a startup, backed by Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners and Accel and valued at $2.5 billion, helping construction and real estate companies procuring materials and handling logistics for their projects – “made massive cash outlays and obtained accommodation entries, totaling around Rs 400 crore [$52.7 million]The ministry said in a statement to the press on Sunday.
The startup executives, when confronted with the tax authorities, “admitted under oath of this method, disclosed additional income of more than Rs. 224 crore [$29.49 million] over several years of different assessments, and therefore offer to pay their tax obligations due,” the department said.
Souvik Sengupta, co-founder and chief executive officer of Infra.Market, was not reached for text search comment.
The startup that is tipped to close a new round could value it at $4 billion, Indian news agency Entrackr Report in November.
The ministry, which is conducting the investigations, said it also discovered “a complex hawala network of several insurance companies based in Mumbai and Thane” that existed only on paper and was created with the “objective”. purpose of providing accommodation services”.
“Preliminary analysis has revealed that the total quantization of accommodation entries provided by these shell entities exceeds Rs. 1,500 crore. So far, unannounced cash of Rs. 1 crockery and jewelry worth Rs. 220,000 have been seized,” the ministry said.
