ED seizes Rs 16 cr of Hyderabad-based firm for FEMA violation

New Delhi, Nov 23:  The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said that they have seized Rs 16 crore belonging to Hyderabad-based company, Alphageo (India) Limited, in the form of fixed deposit under the provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act, (FEMA).

An investigation against Alphageo India Limited was initiated by the ED on the basis of information received that the company had transferred and parked certain funds in the United Arab Emirates in contravention to the provisions of the FEMA.

During investigation, it was revealed that Alphageo is engaged in providing seismic survey services to various oil exploration and production companies in India and abroad. The company has been importing various equipment for seismic data acquisition from several suppliers based in France, Singapore, Netherlands, etc.

The ED came to know that equipment for seismic data acquisition were directly received from various suppliers by Alphageo, however the payment for the same has been routed through an entity Matrix Group DMCC, maintained and controlled by Rajiv Saxena, a Chartered Accountant based in Dubai and a hawala operator for these imports.

The ED also learnt that by way of over invoicing import bills for these imports, Alphageo has parked funds into the account of Matrix Group DMCC for the personal benefit of Dinesh Alla, Chairman and Managing Director of Alphageo (India) Limited in contravention of provisions of FEMA Act.

"Investigation revealed that an amount of USD 25,34,628 was held outside India which was a clear violation of section 4 of FEMA. Therefore, the equivalent value of the foreign funds parked in the United Arab Emirates by Alphageo amounting to Rs 16 crore has been seized in India under Section 37A of FEMA," said the ED.

Further investigation in the matter is on.