HYDERABAD: The ED officials interrogated the representatives of several granite companies at its Basheerbagh office here on Friday. The agency officials asked them to submit details of excavated granite stone from 2010 to 2021 and also sought transaction details with IT returns. Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar, who is also in the granite business, told this correspondent that he had not received any ED notices so far.
Sources said that the agency officials asked for the transportation details, including weighing bills and receipts of payment of seigniorage to the State government. The ED officials questioned the directors of the three granite companies for suspected FEMA violations in the wake of the complaint to them that they had failed to pay a penalty of Rs 760 crore.
The ED sleuths are understood to have questioned them about the transfer of money through the hawala route from China and Hong Kong and the agency also asked them to clarify the money deposited into companies’ employees’ accounts. The ED officials suspect that the companies resorted to FEMA violations by diverting receipts into the employees’ accounts from China and other countries to where they exported mined material.