The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken over the probe into alleged forex violations of over ₹4000 crore by the Goa-based Salgaocar family. All five members of the family – matriarch Lakshmi Salgaoncar and her children Sameer, Chandana, Purnima and Arjun – are being investigated under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for suspicious overseas transactions.
IT Dept has send tax demand of ₹490 crore to each family member
Earlier, the case was being probed by the Income-Tax department under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act. However, as the family is in Singapore, the case was taken over by the ED. The I-T department, though, has sent tax demand notices of ₹490 crore each to the family members.
The taxman has served five notices to the family since 2021, asking them to join the investigation and pay the tax dues. If dues are not paid, recovery measures would be initiated under the Black Money Act. All the five family members did not respond to this reporter’s calls, messages and mails for comments.
ED Takes Over
The ED probe stems from Pandora Papers that named the Salgaocar brothers setting up offshore trusts and firms. The name of late Anil Salgaocar shows up in the Pandora Papers for having set up firms in tax haven British Virgin Islands (BVI) – Crown Bright Trading Ltd; General Harvest International Ltd; Ling Tao Trading Limited; Nikon Enterprises Limited; Sing Ling Tao Resources Limited; and Horizon Villa Investments Limited incorporated by Mossack Fonseca.
The ED had last month questioned both Reliance ADA group chairman Anil Ambani and his wife Tina in an alleged forex violation and offshore assets of Rs800 crore linked to the Pandora Papers case. The leaked papers stated that the beleaguered industrialist and his “representatives” have around over a dozen offshore firms in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Jersey, and Cyprus. These firms were incorporated between 2007 and 2008 and it was alleged that it had availed loans. These loans were then brought to India as foreign direct investment.
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