Shree Cement has denied any tax evasion reports. 
Special 
Shree Cement has denied any tax evasion reports. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has issued an inspection order against Kolkata-based cement manufacturer Shree Cement on reports of improper income tax filings.
The order comes days after the Income Tax (I-T) department conducted survey action at five locations of Shree Cement in Rajasthan, a report in CNBC-TV18 said. The order has been issued taking note of issues such as party transactions, corporate governance matters and issues pertaining to improper income tax filings.
During the survey, the I-T department verified deductions claimed by Shree Cement under section 80IA. The deductions claimed by the company are false, reports suggest.
A survey action of the I-T department is an investigative procedure carried out to ascertain the actual income earned by a tax payer for a financial year.
However, Shree Cement has denied any tax evasion reports. In a statement, the company denied any tax evasion report, which is said to be the biggest ever to date. The company further said that the I-T survey is still ongoing.
The company stated: “Income Tax Department is conducting a survey at our premises, and the company's management team is available and extending full cooperation to the officials. The information as required by the officials is being made available."
After the MCA order, shares of the cement manufacturer edged lower by two per cent during the trading session, hitting an intra day low of Rs 23,574.30 apiece on the BSE. The shares closed at Rs 23,989.00.
Two week back (June 26), shares of Shree Cement plunged over 10 per cent on reports of an alleged evasion of Rs 23,000 crore in taxes. The Income Tax department conducted a survey action at five locations of the cement manufacturer. The raids took place at the company's bases in Beawar, Jaipur, Chittorgarh, and Ajmer.
At that time, it was alleged the company siphoned off Rs 1,200-1,400 crore every year in tax evasion, leading to a huge loss of revenue to the center and the state governments due to “fake agreements".
The company said: "The survey initiated by the tax department on June 21 is on and the company is extending its full cooperation. We believe that the captioned news item appearing in the media is baseless and speculative in nature. Hence, we would like to refrain from making any comments." The ongoing 'survey' by tax department started on June 21.
The deductions claimed by the company were false and the tax officials recovered forged documents, it was reported.
In Q4 FY23, Shree Cement reported a 15 per cent year-on-year (YoY) drop in net profit at Rs 546 crore compared with Rs 645 crore in the same quarter last year. Sales for the quarter rose 17 per cent YoY to Rs 4,785 crore compared with Rs 4,099 crore in the same quarter last year.
Total sales volume increased 10 per cent sequentially to 8.83 million tonnes in Q4FY23 compared with 8.03 million tonnes in the same quarter. The proportion of premium products sales against total trade cement sales stood at 7.5 per cent in the March quarter against 7.2 per cent in the December quarter.
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