The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that five companies including Bhatbhateni Supermarket have evaded tax worth billions of rupees by making fake value-added tax (VAT) bills.
Investigation on the tax evasion was done 10 years ago. Bhatbhateni, Arun Intercontinental of Chaudhary family, Shankar Gas, Mahesh Baniya and IT Pvt Ltd had moved the SC after the Revenue Tribunal ruled that the five companies evaded tax.
The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had also moved the Apex Court dissatisfied with the Revenue Tribunal on some orders.
A bench of Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana and Justice Prakash Dhungana hearing all these cases together has ruled that the five companies evaded tax. The SC has yet to provide details.
The cases started a decade ago when the government probed tax evasion by different business houses including Bhatbhateni.
The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) had said 24 different companies including Bhatbhateni had evaded tax worth Rs 2.07 billion by making fake bills. It had found that Bhatbhateni had avoided tax worth Rs 90 million by making fake bills and asked the supermarket chain to pay that.
The IRD also levied fine and interest on the amount. Owner of Bhatbhateni Min Bahadur Gurung appealed the decision with the IRD director general (DG) but the DG also ruled against him. Gurung then moved the Revenue Tribunal against that decision but the tribunal also found Gurung guilty.
Gurung then moved the SC to appeal against the Revenue Tribunal ruling. Other firma had also similarly appealed against the decision of Revenue Tribunal.
