Hyderabad: Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized assets of M/s Mack Soft Tech Private Limited, Hyderabad, in the form of Q-City Tech Park consisting of 2500 sq yards of land and 2,45,000 sq feet of building space cumulatively worth Rs 86.38 Crore under the provisions of Sec 37A of Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA), in lieu of foreign assets illegally held abroad in contravention of Sec 4 of FEMA. The seized tech park is situated at Survey No.109,110,111/2, Nanakramaguda, Gachibowli here.
ED initiated investigation under FEMA on the basis of information that M/s MSTPL remitted huge funds outside India in contravention of FEMA, 1999. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that M/s MSTPL illegally transferred foreign exchange to the tune of US$ 12,500,000 (equivalent toRs 62.08 Crore) to Orient Guide Investments Limited, Hong Kong under the guise of purchase of a non-existent fake software license.
Further, during the period from November, 2011 to December, 2016, M/s MSTPL transferred foreign exchange to the tune of US$ 3,980,000 (equivalent to Rs 24.30 Crore) to Senat Legal Consultancy FZ LLC, UAE and Cresco Legal Consultancy FZ LLC, UAE in the name of Legal Services. It was proved that this was a sham transaction. The above foreign outward remittances on the pretext of purchase of Software License & Legal Services were made by M/s MSTPL with a view to siphon off funds from India and park them abroad. Illegal holding of foreign assets outside the country is a contravention of Sec 4 of FEMA. Thus, ED is empowered to seize equivalent assets in India u/s Sec 37A of FEMA.
Therefore, physical assets of Q-City Tech Park equivalent to Rs 86.38 Crore (USD $ 16.48 Million) are seized as per the provisions of Section 37A(1) of FEMA and G.S.R. 702(E) dated September 16, 2015 & G.S.R. 701(E) dated September 16, 2015 issued by the Central Government on July 31, 2019. (NSS)