Income Tax teams raid Apollo Hospitals across country

The searches were carried out following inputs regarding large scale tax evasion by one of the biggest corporate healthcare groups in the country. 

Several teams of Income Tax investigation wing conducted the raids from early morning and several incriminating documents were said to have been seized. 

Income Tax sources confirmed to DT Next more than 60 establishments of Apollo Hospitals located in different parts of the country were raided simultaneously by several teams belonging to the regional offices of the Income Tax department in their respective regions. 

Sources said that the raids on Apollo was a continuation of the raids conducted in recent months on several other corporate groups. 

Meanwhile, highly placed sources in the Income Tax deparment in Chennai told DT Next that the department had already done a verification of the group several months back after they received information from regarding a large scale tax evasion by the group. 

“They collected the bill amount in cash from the patients  who come to the hospital’s branches and used to destroy the bills given in return. We also have confirmed that the doctors employed in the hospital were paid only in cash and not through bank accounts. We had done verification and due to manpower crunch to carry out raids on a larger level, we had not followed up on the issue,” a senior Income Tax official said. 

The senior official  of the department further said that it would take several more days to conduct a scrutiny on the documents seized from the healthcare institution’s premises across the country. 

“The scrutiny process has already started but as we have limited resources, it may take several more days to get a clearer picture on the amount of tax evasion committed by the healthcare group. However, we are sure that the evasion would run in to several crores,” the official added.