NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has upheld an income tax department finding that promoters of NDTV used their own shell companies to round-trip investments of Rs 642 crore during 2009-10, making them liable for recovery of tax and penalty.According to official sources, the income tax investigation found that NDTV and its promoters had actually received investments of Rs 1,100 crore during 2007-08 to 2009-10, out of which the roundtripping of Rs 642 crore investments through “paper companies” had been confirmed by the ITAT.“The ITAT has confirmed the finding of I-T department that NDTV group had laundered its own black money of Rs 642.54 crore using foreign paper companies,” said sources reading from an ITAT order dated July 14, 2017. A summary of the order provided by official sources said the ITAT confirmed the finding of the I-T department that NDTV promoter Prannoy Roy made “conscious and deliberate efforts to hide details of foreign paper subsidiary companies of NDTV”.“It is held that Roy, before making an application to the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) on 8 May 2009 seeking exemption to NDTV for not making disclosure of financials of foreign shell companies, misinformed both shareholders and other regulatory authorities on 30 April 2009 that the MCA had already granted the exemptions to the firm.”“In a nutshell, Roy was sure that the MCA will grant such exceptional exemption to NDTV even before approaching the ministry,” the source said.The tribunal, according to the summary of the ITAT order made available, alerted other regulatory and supervisory agencies to be cautious of such corporate behaviours where assessee makes an attempt to hide its “subsidiary companies and its financial transactions to its stakeholders and to regulatory authorities including the income tax authorities”.ITAT has also taken note of the role of PWC in the scheme of tax evasion of Rs 642.54 crore, said official sources. The adjudication of the I-T case against NDTV over alleged round-tripping of investments of Rs 450 crore for the assessment year 2007-08 and 2008-09 is still pending.