Under Investigation in Australia, Getax gets notices from Indian Tax Authrorites

New Delhi : The Income Tax department has issued notices to the legal heirs of Govind Sahai Gupta, Sushila Gupta and Amit Gupta, demanding bank statements and documentary evidence for financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21. According to the notices, the department is investigating the source of funds amounting to approximately Rs 900 crores in the HDFC bank account of Govind Sahai Gupta and Sushila Gupta, Rs 35 crores in the bank accounts of Amit Gupta and Vineeta Gupta, Rs 500 crores in the HDFC bank account of Mrs. Sushila Gupta and Rs 230 crores in several accounts of Govind Sahai Gupta. The department has also asked for details of the amount credited from 2011-12 to 2020-21.  

The notices also mention Form 26AS and non-filing of income tax returns of Mrs. Sushila Gupta and Amit Gupta. In March 2022, Amit’s CA, Mr. Dhananya, replied to the department stating that they were consolidating their Indian and Foreign income/assets.  

The investigation is ongoing and the legal heirs of Govind Sahai Gupta are yet to provide the necessary documents and evidence to the Income Tax department.  

Late Govind Sahai Gupta and his son Amit Gupta are also the promoter of the promoter of the Australian Company Getax Australia Pty Ltd. Amit Gupta’s company Agrifield DMCC is also the preferred supplier of the Indian fertilizer PSUs . After the money laundering and bribery investigation in Australia Getax Australia is now operating under the name of Agrifield in India. Amit Gupta is the promoter of both companies.   

The bribery scandal was widely reported in the Indian and International media and involved officials and important politicians of Nauru. Nauru is an island nation in the South Pacific. It is the world’s third smallest nation-state, and it uses the Australian dollar as its currency. It’s rich in phosphate.  

The logistics arm of Getax Australia, Getax Ocean Trades was fined $80,000 by a Singapore court for giving US$19,918.11 in bribes to a member of parliament from the Republic of Nauru. The investigative agencies of Singapore proved that the bribe was given to Mr Ryke Solomon in exchange for advancing the business interests of Getax Australia with Nauru.

In another investigation, the Australian Federal Police blocked the sale of a multimillion-dollar New York apartment belonging to the Gupta family as part of a long-running and politically sensitive bribery investigation into an Australian mining company.  

US court documents reveal that in February 2020, Attorney-General Christian Porter requested American authorities obtain judicial orders to prevent members of the wealthy Gupta family from offloading a $US3.67 million ($5.2 million) condominium apartment in Manhattan’s prestigious Upper West Side.  

As per the Sydney Morning Herald, the US court documents provide the first glimpse since 2015 into the federal police’s long-running probe into allegations that mining company Getax bribed multiple senior politicians in Nauru, including members of the current cabinet to monopolise the country’s phosphate supply. The US documents name Getax director Amit Gupta as the target of a criminal investigation who is alleged to have conspired with others to bribe foreign public officials and to have engaged in money laundering and other offences.   

Now the same Getax Director Amit Gupta 's Dubai based Agrifield DMCC has become a key supplier to many listed Indian PSUs and Listed private sector companies.  

The big questions is why the Indian companies are in arms with a company whose promoters are under investigation for such serious criminal charges.