Income tax Notice to mukesh ambani family
Income Tax Notices Served To Family Of Mukesh Ambani Under Black Money Act :
The Income Tax Department has issued notices to the Reliance's first family members for their offshore accounts and undisclosed foreign income and assets. The notice was served to Nita Ambani, wife of Chairman Mukesh Ambani, and their three children.
According to The Indian Express reports, the guarded move was made on March 28th this year, under the 2015 Black Money Act. However, the Reliance spokesperson denied the charges and said that they haven't received any such notice by the I-T Department. "We deny all the contents of your email together with receipt of any such notice." said a Reliance spokesperson as per the report.
An investigation by The Indian Express had revealed that a group of 14 HSBC Geneva bank accounts with an approximate balance of $601 million are held by offshore companies in various tax havens. The investigation established that all the 14 bank accounts were linked to the Reliance Group through a complex chain of associates and offshore holdings.
The I-T report revealed that the members of the Ambani family are the 'ultimate beneficiaries' of one of these 14 entities, the Capital Investment Trust through various foreign and domestic entities.
The move was made when the government received the information on the offshore hoarding by 700 Indian moguls and entities holding accounts in HSBC Geneva in 2011. This was also revealed in the infamous Swiss Leaks which escalated the numbers to 1,195.
The I-T department notices further alleged that the Ambanis did not disclose the details and holdings in the Capital Investment Trust and in its "underlying company," the Cayman Islands-based Infrastructure Company Limited of which they also had large stakes.
The I-T department's investigation further reveals that the records received from overseas on February 9, 2004, under foreign exchange treaties disclosed that Infrastructure Company Limited invested $400 million in Global Deposit Receipt (GDR) of Reliance Ports and Terminals, and Reliance Utilities and Power Limited. However, the investor's(Infrastructure Company Limited) name does not appear in the company's shareholders' accounts of the two Reliance companies.
The Reliance Industries Holding Private Limited obtained foreign assets in 2002-03 through The Bank of New York Mellon in the form of Global Deposit Receipt (GDR) despite a meagre share capital of Rs 5 lakh . The shareholder of this company was a private Trust named Harinarayan Enterprises with four beneficiaries belonging to the Ambani family. On investigating with the bank, the department came to know that the Bank acts as a global custodian of GDRs and does not own or benefit from the receipt. It is finished that the 2 Indian companies "tried to hide" the names of owners of householder of homeowners} and useful owners of GDRs by incorporating the name of Bank of new York as investors/ shareholders, reports The Indian Express.
