Panacea Biotec under I-T scanner

The Income Tax (I-T) department has conducted searches at the premises of leading pharmacy and biotech company-- Panacea Biotec-- here for alleged evasion of taxes worth crores.

The searches were carried out at the company's business and other premises in Delhi and the I-T department has seized a number of documents regarding transactions of the firm, official sources said.

"On January 10th and 11th, a search was done at two premises of Panacea Biotec. Panacea Biotec has always been following the law and nothing incriminating was found during the search operation. We have been cooperating with the agencies and will extend our full cooperation in the future too," Panacea Biotec Joint Managing Director Rajesh Jain said.

Panacea Biotec is one of the largest vaccine producer in the country and is also manufacturing the first indigenous vaccine against the dreaded swine flu virus.

The department is sifting through a number of documents related to overseas and other transactions done by the company.

The I-T department suspects tax evasion by the way of transfer of funds to other business associates of the company, the sources said.

Sleuths from the I-T (investigations) unit of the department here who conducted the searches have seized a number of computer peripherals which have records of transactions done by the company, the sources said.