Meesho, the Bengaluru based e-commerce platform, is facing a substantial tax demand from India’s Income Tax Department. The authority has raised a claim of approximately Rs 1,499.7 crore against the company for the financial assessment year 2023-24, and the figure includes interest charges on top of the base tax amount. The demand was formally communicated to Meesho through an official assessment and demand notice issued under the Income Tax Act.
As required under compliance norms, Meesho has disclosed this development to stock exchanges, bringing the matter into the public domain through regulatory channels.
According to Meesho’s own regulatory filing, the Income Tax Department arrived at this elevated figure by making several additions and adjustments to the income numbers that the company had originally submitted. In other words, the tax authority disagreed with how certain figures were reported and revised them upward, which in turn led to the significantly higher demand being raised against the company.
This kind of reassessment by tax authorities is not unusual in large corporate tax proceedings, but the scale of the demand in this case makes it a noteworthy development for a company of Meesho’s size and profile in India’s startup ecosystem.
Meesho has not accepted the tax department’s position. The company has made it clear through its filing that it believes the demand is contestable and that there are both legal and factual grounds to challenge it. The company is currently in the process of reviewing the order in detail and has indicated that it will take the necessary steps to formally dispute the findings.
This kind of response where a company acknowledges a tax demand while simultaneously signalling its intent to challenge it is fairly standard in corporate tax disputes of this nature. The actual liability, if any, will ultimately be determined through the legal and appeals process that follows.
What makes this situation particularly notable is that it is not the first time Meesho has found itself in a similar position. A comparable tax demand was raised against the company for the financial year 2022-23 as well. In that earlier case, the Karnataka High Court intervened and granted an interim stay on the demand notice in April 2025. That matter has not yet been fully resolved and continues to await a final outcome.
The recurrence of such demands across consecutive assessment years adds a layer of complexity to Meesho’s regulatory situation and suggests that the company’s tax position has been a subject of ongoing scrutiny from the authorities.
