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Drone maker ideaForge Technology has received a GST demand and penalty order totalling ₹109.2 Cr over alleged tax underpayment on drone sales. The order comprises a tax demand of ₹54.6 Cr and an equal penalty. In an exchange filing, ideaForge said it received the order from the Additional Commissioner of CGST and Central Excise, Belapur, yesterday. It covers the period between January 2022 and March 2024. The tax authority alleged that ideaForge incorrectly paid GST at 5%, resulting in a shortfall of 13 percentage points. ideaForge said it had submitted its response to the show cause-cum-demand notice. It also pointed out that the government clarified in 2025 that the GST rate applicable to drones is 5%. The company said it would appeal the order after consulting its tax advisers and expects a favourable outcome. It does not anticipate any immediate material impact on its financials, operations, or other activities while the matter remains unresolved. The tax dispute comes after ideaForge reported a net loss of ₹2.3 Cr in Q1 FY27, compared with a net profit of ₹61 Cr in Q4 FY26. However, the loss narrowed over 90% from ₹23.5 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Its operating revenue rose to ₹68.6 Cr from ₹12.8 Cr during the same period, although it declined 51% sequentially from ₹141 Cr. ideaForge started FY27 with an order book of more than ₹300 Cr and added to its growth pipeline during the June quarter. The company raised ₹500 Cr through a QIP in July, with domestic and international institutional investors participating in the issue. It also received a government LoI for financial assistance of up to ₹151 Cr under the RDI Scheme to develop YETI, its middle-mile logistics platform. Shares of ideaForge ended yesterday’s trading session 0.13% higher at ₹734.30 apiece on the BSE. With the GST notice, ideaForge has joined other new-age tech companies facing tax demands. In June, Zomato and Blinkit parent Eternal received a ₹9.63 Cr GST demand from Andhra Pradesh authorities over alleged short payment of output tax, with interest and penalty also applicable. The same month, coworking company Awfis received a GST show cause notice involving about ₹7.1 Cr over alleged discrepancies in its FY23 filings.
document fetched 2026-10-03 02:56 · canonical https://inc42.com/buzz/ideaforge-faces-%e2%82%b9109-cr-gst-demand-penalty-over-alleged-tax-underpayment