The Director General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) has launched an investigation into ride-hailing firms Uber and Ola. The DGGI has issued summons to officials of the two companies related to alleged tax evasion worth hundreds of crores of rupees, according to the sources. The tax liability dues for Uber India has reportedly been calculated as about Rs 800 crore, while as for Bengaluru-based Ola, it has been set at around Rs 300 crore. However, according to the industry sources, two different tax intelligence teams based in different cities have calculated the dues for the companies and sent the notices based on their interpretation. “This has resulted in the calculation of the tax at the rate of 15 per cent for Uber and 6 per cent tax for Ola,” said an industry source.
The income-tax (I-T) department is conducting surveys at Instakart, a group company of e-commerce giant Flipkart, and food delivery firm Swiggy in Bengaluru. The surveys are related to an alleged bogus input tax credit connected to the external vendors of these firms, according to the sources. A team of I-T department officials reached the office of Instakart, located on the Flipkart campus in Bengaluru, on Wednesday. “They are investigating Merlin and Surya Services, which are the third-party vendors for Instakart,” said a person familiar with the matter. “Due to these vendors, Instakart got entangled into this situation.” According to sources, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) is running a countrywide campaign against GST (goods and services tax) evaders to reduce the abuse of the framework. Based on the insights found by DGGI related to GST invasion, the case was sent to the I-T department to check income tax evasion.