Flipkart, Swiggy Under Income Tax Scanner; Searches Conducted At Premises

The I-T department’s search began on Wednesday at Swiggy and Instakart's offices in the southern city of Bengaluru, the sources said.

Man working with Swiggy, an online food delivery application | AFP

The Income Tax (I-T) department this week conducted vetting of the Walmart led e-commerce platform Flipkart and local food delivery startup Swiggy for alleged tax evasion by their third-party vendors. The IT department’s began their search on Wednesday at Swiggy and Instakart's offices in the southern city of Bengaluru, according to news agency Reuters. As per reports, the search at the logistics arm of the e-commerce giant Flipkart was also concluded late on Thursday. As many as 20 IT officials visited the logistics arm of the e-commerce giant in order to inspect the invoices issued to its vendors. READ | India-UK Flights Resume Today Amid Rising Cases Of New Covid-19 Strain; Mandatory ‘Self-Paid’ RT-PCR Test Upon Arrival In a statement, Flipkart said it was providing the officials with "all the required information and are extending our full co-operation", adding the company was in full compliance with all the tax and legal requirements. The local food delivery platform Swiggy, which is backed by Naspers - a South African internet giant, commented on the search stating that it was in full compliance with tax and legal mandates. "The survey by the I-T officials is currently underway and our team is extending full cooperation in the matter." CAIT Against E-commerce Giants It is also worth mentioning, these searches come in backdrop off Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) filed several complaints about the violations of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) 1999, by e-commerce companies. The matter was taken into cognizance by the Union Ministry after which directed the Enforcement Directorate and the Reserve Bank of India to take appropriate actions against Amazon and Flipkart which is owned by Walmart.