Income Tax department conducts raids against Chettinad Group of companies

CHENNAI: Officials of the State Income Taxes department are conducting raids at offices of the Chettinad Group of Companies.

This occurs hours after MAM Ramaswamy, waging a bitter power war with foster son MAMR Muthaiah running the Rs 4000-crore conglomerate, made a claim that there was a huge sales tax claim hanging over the Chettinad Group.

On Tuesday, Ramaswamy had charged son MAMR Muthaiah of being ungrateful and not leading the group in the way of “charity and philanthropy.” In a slew of charges against his adopted son, Ramaswamy alleged “Muthaiah had gone to meet a top official in the taxes department after a sales tax claim, but it appears he has been told to pay up Rs 252 crore.”

Sources in the Muthaiah faction confirmed to ET that almost all offices of Chettinad Cement and group companies are being covered by the IT officials, though they emphasised that such raids do not necessarily mean any laxity on Chettinad’s part in paying taxes.

An Income Department source said the number of offices searched so far has crossed 40. The investigation had started at about 8 am in the morning.