A Jaipur-based resort has reportedly filed a police complaint against hotel booking giant OYO and its founder, Ritesh Agarwal, alleging that the travel booking platform provided false information that led to a ₹2.66 crore GST notice.
The FIR was filed at Jaipur's Ashok Nagar police station by Madan Jain of Samskara Resorts. [Source: The Indian Express]
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What led to the FIR against OYO?
As claimed by Jain, OYO, officially known as Oravel Stays Pvt Ltd, inflated the resort’s turnover by showing fake bookings — some of which even dated for periods when there wasn’t any agreement between the two parties.
As reported, Samskara had a 12-month agreement with OYO starting April 18, 2019. During this period, the resort received bookings worth ₹10.95 lakh through OYO and paid GST accordingly.
However, when OYO allegedly reported a business worth ₹22.22 crore, the GST department issued a notice to the resort, demanding ₹2.66 crore in unpaid tax and penalties.
Incidentally, Husain Khan, president of Hotel Federation of Rajasthan, disclosed that about 20 hotels have received GST notices based on inflated bills allegedly shown by OYO, The Indian Express reported.
According to Khan, OYO has a “poor record” with hotels, and four years ago, “we had campaigned against it, with 125 hotels displaying banners outside the hotels stating that we are not accepting OYO bookings”.
Ritesh Agarwal’s company has not yet responded to the allegations.
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