The Income Tax Department has identified suspicious entities that remitted large amounts of foreign exchange in the last three years, according to a report by NDTV.
The department uncovered a nationwide network of entities engaged in remitting funds, in a search operation conducted on a group of fictitious charitable trusts enagaged in providing accommodation entries against fradulent donations or contributions.
Citing preliminary ground verification, the report said that these remittances were made by either non-filers or filed income-tax returns with very small turnovers. These entities were not operating from the addresses declared by them as well.
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These turnovers did not have correlation with the large amounts of money being remitted outside the country. Additonally, they did not seem to match the said purpose of the remittances, such as payment for freight, import of software, or import of consulting services, the report said.
Data also showed a large number of Form 15CB certificates were issued by a relatively small group of professionals, it added. The remitted funds were received by a clustered group of entities. Read with Rule 37BB of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, Form 15CB needs the Accountant certifying a foreign remittance to verify its taxability with reference to the books of account and other required documents. These findings, however, raise teh question whether adequate due diligence was carried out by the Accountants before issuing these certificates.
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The Income Tax Department launched a detailed verification exercise across the country on August 18, 2026 to verify these foreign remittances, emphasising on shell entities, the persons engaged in them, and the professionals who have issued Form 15CB certificates. The initiave covered around 394 entities and 36 professionals.
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