Walmart- Flipkart deal: IT dept sends notices to Sachin & Binny Bansal; Here's why

IT department has issued notices to the founders of e-commerce giant Flipkart asking them to disclose their total income from the much-hyped Walmart-Flipkart deal.

The IT Department, in the past, had also issued a notice to Walmart asking to disclose the details. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: The Income Tax (IT) department has issued notices to the founders of e-commerce giant Flipkart asking them to disclose their total income from the much-hyped Walmart-Flipkart deal and also the capital gains that have occurred. According to a report by Times of India, the department has also sent similar notices to 35 stakeholders who had some shareholding in the company. Though Binny Bansal responded to TOI queries about the issued notice, Sachin is yet to give a statement to the media. “There was a query received with regard to the sale of shares and payment of advance taxes. It happened a few months ago and I had already responded to the same,” Binny told the paper. Both Sachin and Binny Bansal had around 5 per cent stake each in Flipkart. The IT Department, in the past, had also issued a notice to Walmart asking to disclose the details of its 46 stakeholders of Flipkart and how much they raised from the acquisition deal. Walmart acquired 77 per cent of the shares of Flipkart for $16 billion in May this year in a share-purchase deal signed by Walmart International Holdings and Flipkart Singapore. However, the IT department did not find Walmart’s response satisfactory and wrote back to the international retail giant asking to explain the break-up of the total amount of tax deducted from the payment to each of Flipkart’s shareholders which also include global investing firms such as SoftBank and eBay. Flipkart is a Singapore-registered company and SoftBank and eBay were its major shareholders before its sale to Walmart. Both SoftBank and eBay might have to face around 40 per cent and 20 per cent short-term capital gain tax, respectively. As per the report, notices were sent on October 18 and both Binny and Sachin are yet to respond to the IT department. However, other stakeholders have started responding to the tax department disclosing the required information.