They Happened In 2013 Too, But It Is Only An Issue Now: Sitharaman On I-T Raids On Taapsee Pannu, Anurag Kashyap

Over the issue of Income Tax department raids on the properties of Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today questioned why it wasn’t an issue when the same people were raided in 2013.

“When it (raids) happens during one government, it's fine; when it happens during this government, it's not. The same people were raided in 2013 too, it wasn't an issue, but it's an issue now,” she was quoted as saying by ANI.

On 3 March, the Income Tax Department began raids on the homes and offices of Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap.

The searches, part of a tax evasion probe against Phantom Films, carried out across 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune and included Kashyap’s partners, who launched the now-closed production house.

The raids also covered Reliance Entertainment group CEO Shibhasish Sarkar and some executives of celebrity and talent management companies KWAN and Exceed.

The search and survey operations were carried out in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad.

"During the search, evidence of huge suppression of income by the leading film production house compared to the actual box office collections has been unearthed," said the tax department in a statement on Thursday.

"The company officials have not been able to explain the discrepancy of around ₹ 300 crore."

"Evidence related to manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of the production house amongst the film directors and shareholders, having tax implication of about Rs 350 crore has been found and is being further investigated," it said, adding that the evidence of cash receipts by the actor amounting to Rs 5 crore had been recovered.