Satyam Computer Services Ltd. said Tuesday it has received a letter from India’s tax department requesting it to get its accounts audited for the tax assessment years of 2002-2003 and 2007-2008. No further details were provided in Satyam’s filing to the local exchanges.
The move is likely to be a precursor to a demand for the fraud-hit company to pay up taxes. In November, Satyam said the department was seeking tax amounting to 5.03 billion rupees ($111.5 million) for the five-year period between the financial year 2003 and 2008.
At the time, Satyam said it had filed a petition with the Central Board of Direct Taxes asking it to stay the tax collection.
Satyam, one of India’s largest IT companies, was plunged into turmoil in January 2009 when its founder and then chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, confessed to overstating profits for years, using a fictitious cash balance of more than $1 billion.
In August, Mahindra Satyam announced its first earnings results in nearly two years after a massive false accounting scandal that threatened its future. FY-10 total sales stood at Rs 5481 crore. The company suffered a loss of Rs 124.6 cr. FY-10 standalone loss stood at Rs 71.2 cr. The company said that the total impact on P&L on account of fictitious profit was Rs 6800 crore. FY-09 loss was at Rs 8177 cr. The company said it will release Q1, Q2 FY 11 accounts as well. Accounts under US GAAP will be declared in the next 6-8 months.
