Income Tax Department probes total payment on Flipkart sale

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Nov 22, 2018

The Income Tax Department has asked Flipkart’s co-founders Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, and 35 other stakeholders to disclose their total income and capital gains from selling Flipkart to Walmart International.

As reported by TNN, the Income Tax Department is looking into any gains made from the recent sale of a 77 percent stake in Flipkart to the US-based business Walmart. As both Sachin and Binny Bansal had over five percent stakes each in the business, they are believed to have made a sizeable sum from the deal, although both have now left the company.

On May 9, a share purchase agreement was signed by Flipkart Singapore and Walmart International Holdings. The latter acquired 77 percent of Flipkart shares for around $16 billion (Rs 1.06 lakh crore). Following this, the Income Tax Department notified Walmart that it required details of 46 Flipkart shareholders. Despite initial concern when the deadline for doing so was approaching, Walmart provided this information.

The Income Tax Department has reported that, after it issued the request for income details on October 18, responses from some of the Indian shareholders have started to arrive. However, it reports that it has not yet received replies from the Bansals.

Although Sachin Bansal has not yet made a formal statement on the matter, Binny Bansal told the Times of India: “There was a query received with regard to sale of shares and payment of advance taxes. It happened a few months ago and I had already responded to the same.”

The Income Tax Department is still calculating the exact amount of tax to be paid for the Flipkart transaction. It is currently investigating alleged suspicious transactions in the business before it can do so.