Trouble mounts for Jet Airways as Income Tax Department finds evidence of inflated expenditure by airline

New Delhi: The Income Tax (IT) Department has found evidence of inflated expenditure by Jet Airways in their survey carried out at the airline’s Mumbai and Delhi offices. The Mumbai Directorate of Income-Tax investigation wing had conducted the survey at four business premises of Jet Airways in the two cities. A senior Income Tax official privy to the development told ANI: “We had found evidence of very high inflated expenditure bills during the survey. Jet Airways had shown too much expenditure while filling their returns to reduce the profitability of the company.” [caption id=“attachment_2693392” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file image of a Jet Airways aircraft. PTI[/caption] Following this, the IT department is verifying all the records to dig out information about the alleged financial irregularities and suspicious transactions of the Naresh Goyal-controlled Jet Airways. According to sources, the IT officials are scrutinising the airline’s records for the last four years to find out if there has been any siphoning of funds, and to also look at the issue of suspicious bogus expenses booked to group entities, if any. The official revealed that the department decided to conduct the survey after Jet Airways deferred its quarterly result. On 19 September, the IT department had conducted a survey of Jet Airways for verification of its expenses. The airlines has been in the spotlight since 9 August, after it deferred its quarterly results amid differences with its auditors, leading to queries by stock exchanges and the market regulator. The auditor did not modify its opinion and reiterated that the airline’s future was dependent on raising capital and generating sustainable cash flows. Last month, Jet Airways had said that it would seek capital infusion and sell stake in its loyalty programme, after reporting a net loss of Rs 13.26 billion in the April-June quarter of 2018-19.