Bengaluru founder plans India exit after paying Rs 4 crore in taxes: ‘System is flawed’

Rohit shroff

• Entrepreneur Rohit Shroff plans to move his business out of India by 2026
• Shroff cites excessive tax scrutiny and compliance burden on honest businesses
• He argues India's system penalises growth and offers little support to taxpayers

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A Bengaluru-based entrepreneur has sparked a wider debate on India’s tax and compliance regime after announcing plans to move his business out of the country in 2026. Rohit Shroff, founder of logistics firm Aflog Group, said India’s system places an excessive burden on honest, compliant businesses.

In a LinkedIn post that has since gained traction, Shroff said he paid nearly Rs 4 crore in GST and income tax over the past 18 months. Yet, he argued, rule-following businesses continue to face constant scrutiny from tax authorities.

“In the last 12–18 months, across my businesses, in GST and income tax, I’ve paid over Rs 4 crore to a country that looks at its most compliant contributors with suspicion by default,” he wrote.

Shroff pointed out that fewer than 5 per cent of Indians pay direct income tax, but this small group is subjected to repeated notices, audits and clarification requests. He said scrutiny comes from multiple layers, including local GST offices and central income-tax teams, even as businesses diligently file monthly GST returns, quarterly TDS statements and annual tax filings.

According to him, compliance offers little in return. “Fighting the system costs more than complying and moving on,” Shroff said, adding that entrepreneurs often stay silent because challenging the process drains time, money and energy.

He argued that tax-paying business owners form a politically insignificant minority, making them easy targets. “The system is designed to win the confidence of the majority, not to enable the minority that builds formally and pays consistently,” he wrote.

Shroff contrasted this with opportunities abroad, saying many Indians thrive overseas because they are not weighed down by what he called a punitive system at home. “India’s framework penalises growth instead of enabling it,” he said.

Calling time on what he described as the “building in India” dream, Shroff said his goal for 2026 is to relocate and build his business elsewhere. He stressed that the decision was not about patriotism, but about practical realities and the lack of genuine ease of doing business.