hyderabadmumbai there could be a silver lining for satyam amid the dark clouds the scamtainted it services company whose accounts could be scrutinised by the central board of direct taxes cbdt can actually claim a refund on the taxes paid in the past technically a refund claim can be made if the restated accounts reflect a lower profit than what was reported in the books of accounts said a senior incometax department official the company had made tax provisions of rs 25486 crore and rs 16815 crore for the financial years 200708 and 200607 respectively the company had reported revenues of rs 839448 crore and rs 641008 crore for the two fiscal years respectively the firm has time till march 2009 and march 2010 respectively to revise its incometax returns for 200607 and 200708 it can also claim a refund on the advance tax paid in the first two quarters of this fiscal icai president ved jain confirmed the same saying that the company will first have to revise their balance sheet and income statement and then claim a refund if it is evident from the revised financials that they have paid any excess taxsatyam like many other software companies earns a bulk of its income from exports and enjoys a tax holiday on export profits under the incometax act since the company has now admitted to inflating its income tax authorities are expected to examine the tax benefits enjoyed by it over the years on its export income as wellhowever according to the annual report for fy08 the companys tax exemption for one unit each in the software technology parks in hyderabad chennai pune and bhubaneshwar had expired at the beginning of fiscal 2008 this along with the increase in revenues has been cited as reason for an rs 8671crore increase in the companys current tax provision even if a refund could be a possibility the entire process may take a while as investigating agencies including market regulator sebi securities and exchange board of india have launched a probe after b ramalinga raju the firms disgraced chairman confessed that the companys accounts had been fudged and there was a rs 7000crore hole in its balance sheet the gap in the balance sheet has arisen purely on account of inflated profits over a period of last several years limited only to satyam standalone books of subsidiaries reflecting true performance what started as a marginal gap between actual operating profits and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years and attained unmanageable proportions raju had said in his confession letter to the stock exchanges on january 7