The Central Board of Direct Taxes has initiated a scrutiny of Reliance Infocomm's tax returns.
Officials told Business Standard the finance ministry would soon decide on the reference made by the Prime Minister's Office on investigating the allotment of shares at Re 1 each to three companies -- Prerna Auto Pvt Ltd, Softnet Traders & Consultants Pvt Ltd and Fairever Traders & Consultants Pvt Ltd -- controlled by Ashish Deora, a Mumbai-based businessman.
The Reliance 'ownership issue'
They said the option before the ministry was to refer the matter to either the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Central Bureau of Investigation or the Serious Frauds Investigation Office in the ministry of company affairs. They indicated that SFIO was not a very feasible option.
The officials, however, did not disclose the details of the CBDT scrutiny and only said the matter related to the last financial year.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the government was examining whether any law had been violated, though nothing wrong had been detected so far.
Sebi is already examining certain aspects related to the Reliance Industries, officials said.
Officials said that the finance ministry had received several requests for investigation of Reliance Industries and Reliance Infocomm but an enquiry was only being contemplated in the matter referred to it by the PMO.