Parallel Book-keeping, Referral Payments to Doctors and Clinics: IT raid at Delhi Hospitals reveal Rs 150 crore unaccounted income
New Delhi: An income tax raid at a series of hospitals and healthcare institutions in Delhi-NCR seems to have opened a can of worms regarding the functioning of hospitals with parallel book-keeping, referral payment to doctors and clinics as percentage of invoices to patients, overcharging of patients bills as well as other incriminating evidence of transactions of benami nature.
"The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on 27.07.2022 on several groups engaged in the healthcare services by running hospitals. A total of 44 premises were covered during the search action in Delhi-NCR.During the course of the search operation, huge incriminating physical and digital evidence has been seized," the IT department stated in its release.
While the IT department did not name the organizations, CNBCTV18 reports these hospitals to include Metro Group of Hospitals, Accord Hospitals and SSB hospitals
"The analysis of evidences revealed that the one of the groups was maintaining a parallel set of books of account, indicating systematic under-reporting of receipts received from patients in cash. The modus-operandi adopted by this group included removal of invoices or deflation of the invoice amount by marking them as "Discounts/Concessions" etc., at the time of discharge of patients from the hospital. This practice, resulting in evasion of income, is being followed across all the hospitals of the group and is spread over various years,"
The search operation has led to the seizure of unexplained cash of over Rs.3.50 crore and jewellery valued at Rs. 10.00 crore. So far, the unaccounted income of all the groups detected in these operations, is estimated to be more than Rs. 150 crore. More than 30 bank lockers have been put under restraint.
The other healthcare groups covered in the search operation have been found to be engaged in obtaining either bogus or inflated invoices for pharmaceutical drugs and/or medical devices such as stents, leading not only to suppression of actual profits, but also overcharging from the patients. The money trail found during the investigations has further corroborated the fact that the groups have been receiving back cash in lieu of payments made through banking channels for these bogus/inflated invoices. One of the hospitals of these groups was also found to be claiming wrong deduction over the years without fulfilling the necessary conditions for the hospital to be eligible as specified business.
The seized evidence has also revealed the practice of referral payment to doctors and clinics without duly recording these in the books of account. The referral payment has been fixed at a percentage of invoices raised to the patients. Evidence pertaining to transactions of benami nature have also been uncovered during the search action.
Further investigations are in progress.
Read also: IT Department raids multiple hospitals of Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram over tax evasion
