The chairman and managing director of Manpasand Beverages Ltd has offered to step down in the wake of an alleged tax fraud involving the fruit juice maker.
The company said in a stock-exchange disclosure that Dhirendra Singh is willing to resign in the “in the best interest of the company”. Singh is in talks with consulting firm EY to advise the company, which has been battling allegations of a Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud.
The development comes after the SAIF Partners-backed company’s managing director and finance chief were taken into custody late last month related to tax anomalies. Managing director Abhishek Singh and chief financial officer Paresh Thakkar were ordered into custody on 24 May while tax authorities also conducted searches on the company’s premises.
The company has said previously that it was contesting the allegations in accordance with law.
Shares of Manpasand have been falling ever since the tax authorities conducted the searches. The juice maker’s shares dropped for an eighth day on Thursday, falling 5% to a one-year low of Rs 44 apiece on the BSE.
The stock had touched a peak in January 2018 after tripling over the initial public offering (IPO) price of Rs 320 apiece three years ago.
The company's performance on the bourses was also majorly impacted after Deloitte Haskins and Sells LLP resigned as its auditor in May 2018.
Deloitte had said in its resignation letter that it was resigning because Manpasand had not provided it with “significant information”, which it had requested several times for the purposes of auditing the financial results and that it would not be able to audit the company’s books.
The auditing firm had also pointed out that there had been no progress with respect to the “pending information, evidence and explanations” despite several reminders. Manpasand had denied any such inaction on its part.
