Indian tax authorities seek $101 million in Byju’s insolvency process

Indian tax authorities are seeking dues of $101 million from education-technology company Byju’s, once the country’s biggest startup.

Which is now undergoing an insolvency process, claim documents reviewed by Reuters on Friday showed.

Backed by General Atlantic, Byju’s was valued at $22 billion in 2022, but has seen its fortunes dwindle due to many regulatory issues and more recently a dispute with U.S. lenders who are demanding $1 billion in unpaid dues, triggering the company’s insolvency that led to an assets freeze.

The company is being run by court-appointed resolution professional Pankaj Srivastava who is inviting lenders, employees, vendors and government to claim unpaid dues.

India’s department of revenue has filed a claim worth $18.7 million while the tax department of the state of Karnataka, where Byju’s is based, is seeking $82.3 million, according to documents on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India website.

Reuters is first to report the demand numbers, which reveal how much New Delhi believes Byju’s owes it, and come after months of complaints by the company’s employees that their salaries and mandatory tax deposits to the government have been delayed or missed.

The claim document described the outstanding amounts as “statutory dues”, without elaborating.

Byju’s and Srivastava did not respond to Reuters queries.

Overall, claims worth over $1.5 billion from 1,887 creditors have been made so far, with most of them still under review, other claim documents showed.

Byju’s, which operates in more than 21 countries, became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic by offering online education courses. It has around 27,000 employees, including 16,000 teachers.

Its insolvency threatens to be the biggest upset in a celebrated startup sector, unleashing a long battle by thousands of panic-stricken employees to recover dues and protect their careers.