The Income Tax Department said on Thursday in a press release that discrepancies of more than Rs 650 crore were detected from the ongoing raids in residences and offices of filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, actor Taapsee Pannu, and others in Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad.
According to tax officials, their searches so far have found inconsistencies in cash payments worth Rs 5 crore received by Pannu and Rs 300 crore income by Kashyap’s former production house, Phantom Films, among other problems.
“Evidence of huge suppression of income by the leading Film Production house (Phantom films) compared to the actual box office collections has been unearthed. The company officials have not been able to explain the discrepancy of around Rs 300 crore,” the press release noted.
“Evidence related to manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of the production house amongst the film directors and shareholders, having tax implication of about Rs 350 crore has been found and is being further investigated,” the statement said.
The raids had started on Wednesday. The others searched during the raids include some employees of Phantom Films, which was dissolved in 2018, and its other promoters director-producer Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Vikas Bahl and producer-distributor Madhu Mantena.
“Non-genuine or bogus expenditure” to related concerns by the producers and directors having tax implications of about Rs 20 crore has been detected, the press release said.
Recommended
Without mentioning any names, the press release said that a huge amount of “digital data has been seized in the form of emails, WhatsApp chats, hard disk, etc. which are under investigation” from the office premises of two talent management companies. Reportedly, Kwan and Exceed are the two companies under the radar.
The press release noted that searches and investigations in this matter are still ongoing.
Kashyap and Pannu, who worked together in the 2018 film Manmarziyaan, were in Pune shooting for their upcoming film Dobaara.