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United Breweries faces Rs 22.5 crore tax demand from Maharashtra VAT
Company plans appeal, says case strong despite levy on FY22 filings
MUMBAI: United Breweries Limited has received a tax demand totalling Rs 22.5 crore from the Maharashtra State VAT Department, adding a fresh twist to its regulatory disclosures.
The order, issued by the Deputy Commissioner of State Tax, relates to the financial year 2021-22 and stems from the alleged non-submission of declaration forms required for availing concessional tax rates under the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956.
The total demand includes additional tax of Rs 9.65 crore, interest of Rs 10.42 crore and a penalty of Rs 2.41 crore. The order was dated March 30, 2026 and received by the company on April 1.
United Breweries said it is currently evaluating its legal options and is preparing to challenge the demand before the appropriate appellate authority. The company maintains that it has a strong case on merits.
In its disclosure, United Breweries Limited company secretary and compliance officer Nikhil Malpani indicated that the company does not expect any material financial impact, apart from a statutory pre-deposit required to file the appeal.
The development highlights the continued scrutiny around indirect tax compliance, particularly legacy issues linked to documentation under earlier tax regimes. For United Breweries, the immediate focus will be on contesting the demand while keeping any financial exposure in check.
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YES Bank appoints S Anantharaman as chief risk officer
Former Jio Financial Services group chief risk officer takes charge of enterprise-wide risk at the embattled private lender
MUMBAI: YES Bank is not taking chances with risk anymore. The private lender has appointed S Anantharaman as its chief risk officer, a hire that signals the bank’s continued effort to rebuild credibility and tighten the controls that once famously slipped.
Anantharaman arrives from Jio Financial Services, where he served as group chief risk officer and built a risk management architecture spanning lending, payments, insurance broking and asset management from the ground up. Before that, he held the chief risk officer role at Bank of Baroda and senior leadership positions at HDFC Bank and L&T Finance Holdings. Three decades in banking and financial services, in other words, with scars and qualifications to match. He is a chartered accountant and a CFA charterholder.
At YES Bank, his brief is considerable. Anantharaman will oversee the bank’s entire enterprise-wide risk framework, covering credit policy, market risk, operational risk, information security, data governance, analytics, model governance and data privacy. It is, in short, every lever that matters when a bank is trying to prove it has grown up.
YES Bank’s turbulent past needs little rehearsing. What it needs now is exactly what Anantharaman has spent thirty years building: the kind of risk culture that stops problems before they become headlines. The appointment suggests the bank knows it.
