Mumbai | The Income Tax Department of Mumbai had served notices to the wife and three children of Reliance Industries Chairperson Mukesh Ambani for allegedly having undisclosed income.
In a closely guarded move, notices were served on March 28, 2019 in the names of Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani and their three children for their alleged “undisclosed foreign income and assets”, as reported by TheIndianExpress.
The notices were sent under the Black Money Act, 2015, after an investigation with the help of information from agencies in several countries, the newspaper said.
“A cluster of 14 HSBC Geneva bank accounts with a cumulative balance of $601 million held by offshore entities in tax havens were all linked, through a complex chain of associates and offshore holdings, to the Reliance Group”, the TheIndianExpress report said.
The income tax inquiry report, dated February 4 claimed the Ambani “ultimate beneficiaries” of one of these 14 accounts, which was held by the Capital Investment Trust.
When questioned about the notices and the allegations, a Reliance spokesperson told The Indian Express: “We deny all the contents of your email including receipt of any such notice.”
The IT Department notice has also alleged that the Ambanis failed to disclose details and holdings in the Capital Investment Trust and in its “underlying company,” the Cayman Islands-based Infrastructure Company Limited of which they were also ultimate beneficiaries.
The Ambanis were asked in the notice to produce evidence in their support for the assessment of the undisclosed foreign assets for 2018-’19 in a hearing on April 12. However, no updated information has been received then.
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