The Income Tax Department has detected unaccounted income of over ₹150 crore following searches conducted against several groups running hospitals in and around Delhi. The agency has seized ₹3.50 crore in cash and jewellery worth about ₹10 crore.
The searches were initiated on 44 premises linked to the healthcare groups on July 27. An analysis of the evidence gathered during the operation revealed that one of the groups was maintaining a parallel set of books of account, indicating that there was a systematic under-reporting of the money received from patients in cash.
“The modus operandi adopted by this group included removal of invoices or deflation of the invoice amount by marking them as ‘discounts/concessions’ at the time of discharge of patients from the hospital. This practice, resulting in evasion of income, is being followed across all the hospitals of the group and is spread over various years,” the I-T Department said.
The other healthcare groups covered during the search operation used to get either bogus or inflated invoices for pharmaceutical drugs and/or medical devices such as stents, leading not only to suppression of the actual profits, but also overcharging from the patients, as alleged.
According to the agency, the money trail found during the investigation showed that the groups were receiving back cash in lieu of the payments made through banking channels for the bogus or inflated invoices. “One of the hospitals of these groups was also found to be claiming wrong deduction over the years without fulfilling the necessary conditions for the hospital to be eligible as specified business,” it said.
The groups were also involved in the practice of referral payment to doctors and clinics without duly recording them in the books of account. Such payments were fixed at a percentage of the invoices raised to the patients. Besides, the agency has come across evidence about transactions of benami nature.
