The Income Tax Department has come knocking on the Saharas with a tax demand of Rs4,860 crore. In a fresh application moved in the Supreme Court, which is hearing a plea by Sahara chief Subrata Roy to allow sale of his properties in order to secure his release from prison, the Department said that if the Sahara firms fail to identity the depositors of the controversial debenture scheme red-flagged by SEBI, the Department may even lay claim over the entire Rs20,000 crore collected under the scheme as being black money.
This has added to the woes of Sahara, which is in the process of distress sale of its properties, both in India and abroad, in order to generate Rs10,000 crore, fixed by the court as an advance payment to secure his release. Roy is in Tihar Jail since March 4.
The Bench of Justices TS Thakur, AR Dave and AK Sikri decided to hear the I-T department’s application as and when it was listed in Court. Meanwhile, the court decided to hear SEBI on Friday on separate applications by Sahara seeking permission to sell three overseas properties — two in New York and one in london — in order to secure payment for release of Roy.
Sahara has deposited Rs3,117 crore with SEBI. There is a deficit of another Rs2,000 crore to be paid in cash and a bank guarantee of Rs5,000 crore for which Roy sought permission to sell his overseas properties.An independent valuer’s report produced by Sahara estimated that a sum of Rs5,000 crore will accrue from the sale of the three properties.
In May, Court had lifted the embargo on sale of nine Sahara properties in India which was estimated to fetch over Rs4,800 crore. The bench asked SEBI to respond on safeguards to be put in place in order to ensure that “valuable property” was not sold for pittance. Beyond Rs10,000 crore, Sahara has an outstanding amount of Rs28,000 crore to be deposited with SEBI.