It is reported that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has accepted the Serious Fraud Investigation Office report on Sesa Goa and Sesa Industries.

This relates to a period prior to the merger of the two entities. The two companies have been found guilty of over and under invoicing bills to the tune of INR 1,000 crore.

The SFIO had found that these two companies had not only violated the Companies Act but also certain provisions of other legislations, like the Indian Penal Code. However, since the Ministry of Corporate Affairs only deals with corporate law violations and it has directed SFIO to initiate action on the violations of the Companies Act and for the other violations it is making a reference to the Enforcement Directorate and the IT department.

The SFIO during its investigations had found that these that are Sesa Goa and Sesa Industries had under invoiced exports to the tune of INR 1,002 crore and they had over invoiced iron-ore sales by INR 42.51 crore. It also found out that the companies had under invoiced their exports and they had over invoiced coking coal imports by INR 14.6 crore.

These violations would affect the company profit and loss account and so this investigation had been ordered. Now, even though this pertains to a period before the merger of the two entities, the company has a separate legal entity. So it does not matter if there is a change in the ownership the company still remains accountable for the acts which have been committed by it.

CNBC-TV18 did reach out to the company and to Mr PK Mukherjee MD of Sesa Goa. He told the channel that he has not received any formal communication from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and that the company will be looking at exploring all the options which are available to it in the near future.

(Sourced from www.moneycontrol.com)