The Income Tax Department has conducted raids at the Hero MotoCorp Chairman, Managing Director and CEO Pawan Munjal's residence and office. Searches are underway at his residence and office in Gurgaon since morning. I-T department officials are also conducting searches at premises lined to other top officials of the company.
These searches have been conducted as part of a tax evasion investigation against India's largest two-wheeler manufacturer, as per Income Tax department officials. As part of this raid, I-T officials searched premises located across Gurugram, Haryana, Delhi and a few other locations.
Officials are checking financial documents and other business transactions of the company and its promoters, as per news agency PTI.
Hero MotoCorp is led by Pawan Munjal and has expanded its presence to 40 countries in Asia, Africa, South America and Central America. Hero MotoCorp has 8 globally benchmarked manufacturing facilities – 6 in India and 1 each in Colombia and Bangladesh.
The two-wheeler maker is a dominant market leader in India with over 50 per cent share in the domestic motorcycle market.
Commenting on these raids, Hero MotoCorp said in a statement they have been informed that these searched by the Income Tax Department were part of a routine inquiry which commonly takes place before a financial year.
The statement read, "Officials from the Income Tax Department visited two of our offices in Delhi and Gurugram and the residence of our Chairman and CEO Pawan Munjal on Wednesday. We have been informed that this is a routine inquiry, which is not uncommon before the end of the financial year."
It further noted, "We reassure all our stakeholders that it continues to be business as usual."
(With inputs from Divyesh Singh, agencies)
Also read: ‘Routine inquiry’, ‘business as usual’: Hero MotoCorp on I-T department searches