The tax searches against the Kolkata-headquartered cement firm continued for the second time his week. A whopping ₹ 23,000 crore tax evasion has been found in tax searches at multiple locations of Shree Cement Ltd in Rajasthan, sources have told news agencies, claiming it is one of the biggest tax evasions to date. The tax officials, say sources, recovered forged documents.
The deductions claimed by the company, which is one of India’s top three cement producers, are false, sources added. The sources say that the company siphoned off ₹ 1200-1400 crore every year in tax evasion and the center and the state government have suffered a huge loss of revenue due to fake agreements.
The company tells exchanges that the tax ‘survey is still going on and ‘any information circulating in the media otherwise is incorrect
Shares of Shree Cements tanked 10 percent in early trade on June 26 following reports that the company has been found to have allegedly evaded Rs 23,000 crore in taxes.
A report by a leading media house said an alleged evasion of Rs 23,000 crore, said to be one of the biggest, was allegedly unearthed during tax searches at Shree Cements offices in Rajasthan’s Beawar, Jaipur, Chittorgarh, and Ajmer.
The company tried to calm investors through a clarification issued on the exchanges. “We would like to clarify that the survey is still going on. The entire management team of the company is available and extending full cooperation to the officials. Any information circulating in the media otherwise is incorrect and has been published without seeking prior inputs from the company,” Shree Cements said.
Shree Cement is an Indian cement manufacturer, founded in Beawar, Rajasthan, in 1979. Now headquartered in Kolkata, it is one of the biggest cement makers in Northern India. Shree Cement has moved in the last two decades from having a 2 million tonne metric tonnes production capacity to become the country’s third largest cement player, with an installed capacity of 43.3 metric tonnes in India and 47.4 metric tonnes overseas. It also produces and sells power under the name Shree Power (Captive Power Plant) and Shree Mega Power (Independent Power Plant).
Since 2006, it has more than quadrupled its production capacity both by expanding into new areas and increasing the capacities of the existing plants. Shree Cement has been ranked 4th in the 2017 Responsible Business Rankings developed by IIM Udaipur.
