Exclusive: GST Department Raids InsuranceDekho HQ For Alleged Tax Evasion

Delhi NCR-based insurance tech major InsuranceDekho’s head office was raided by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) department on Thursday (January 9), Inc42 has learnt from sources close to the company.

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) conducted raids at the Gurugram office of the startup for alleged tax evasion. 

The DGGI officials barred employees from accessing certain parts of the company’s office, the sources alleged.

Inc42 further learnt that founder and CEO Ankit Agrawal and other top officials of the startup were not present in the office at the time of raid. 

Inc42 has reached out to CEO Agrawal, along with DGGI Gurugram, seeking further details about the development. The story will be updated on receiving a response.

InsuranceDekho was founded as the insurance arm of the online car marketplace CarDekho in 2017 by Agrawal and Ish Babbar. However, it was later hived off to function as a separate unit. 

Notably, the update comes after DGGI issued show cause notices to multiple insurance players in April 2023– including insurance tech majors Go Digit and Policybazaar, along with HDFC Bank, among others. 

At the time, the authorities were said to have detected evasion of INR 2,250 Cr and were centred on invoices raised from 2018 to March 2022.

The notices reportedly alleged that these companies issued fake invoices for many insurance companies without providing any service, which is a punishable offence under GST norms.

However, Inc42 was unable to confirm whether the current DGGI investigation pertains to a similar case.