Over Rs 200 Cr Seized During I-T Raids On Liquor Firms Over Tax Evasion In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Having stumbled upon cash worth over Rs 200 crore, Income Tax (IT) department officials continued raids on property linked to various alcohol manufacturing firms in Odisha over alleged tax evasion, on the second day on Thursday.

The I-T team searched the corporate office of Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd at Palasapalli in Bhubaneswar, houses of some company officials, the company’s factory and office in Boudh and the Ranisati Rice Mill.

Currently, simultaneous raids are underway at 20 places in Odisha, 2 places in Jharkhand and 2 places in Kolkata.

According to sources, Rs 150 crore alone in bundles of Rs 500 denominations were seized from residences and country liquor shops belonging to Raj Kishore Sahu and Debraj Sahu, a Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand, during searches in Boudh, Raidih, Sambalpur, and Balangir districts as well as in Ranchi and Lohardaga in Jharkhand on Wednesday. The cash was then sent to banks in two trucks for counting.

Sources further said that counting up to Rs 50 crore could be completed by last evening as machines stopped working since the number of notes was very high.

Searches were carried out at over half a dozen firms, including Shiw Ganga and Company and Boudh Distillery Pvt Ltd, on Wednesday. It is alleged that Shiw Ganga was selling country liquor through its outlets across the state without maintaining bills/vouchers for which a substantial amount of cash sales was not being accounted for in regular books of account of the firm.

The IT department officials are also investigating the company’s inconsistent and low net profits from financial year 2019 to 2021, inflated expenses towards the purchase of mahua/other articles and suspicious other payables shown in the balance sheet, the sources added.

It is worth mentioning here that Baldeo Sahu & Group of Companies is in partnership with Boudh Distilleries Pvt Ltd. The former has other businesses, including Baldeo Sahu Infra Pvt Ltd (which makes fly ash bricks), Kwality Bottlers Pvt Ltd (an IMFL bottling unit), and Kishore Prasad Bijay Prasad Beverages Pvt Ltd engaged in the sale and marketing of different IMFL brands.