KONICA-MINOLTA BUSTED…….FAILED TO DECLARE INCOME

[Anonymous]

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7SEavQ_ZUfUIsECwqzT9B83ryLA
Japan’s Konica Minolta says failed to declare income
May  2008 TOKYO  — Japanese office equipment maker Konica Minolta said Friday that it was ordered to pay a penalty for failing to declare income of some 17 million dollars.Konica Minolta Holdings Inc. said it and its subsidiaries inadvertently concealed 1.8 billion yen (17.4 million dollars) in income for two years to March 2007.

It was ordered to pay some 1.2 billion yen in additional taxes as a penalty, a company spokesman said.One of its subsidiaries, Konica Minolta Healthcare Co., had lent digital X-ray equipment for free to hospitals as part of a sales promotion, the spokesman said.But the company reported costs for the equipment in its earnings instead of writing it off as a depreciation of assets, he said.The total income that the company failed to declare during the two years, including other cases of accounting errors, amounted to more than two billion yen, he said.”It was part of the company’s sales promotion programme,” he said. “The company thought it would be no problem to report the cost,” he added.

The group, formed through the 2003 merger of Konica and Minolta, later reported a 5.1 percent drop in net profit for the year to March to 68.83 billion yen due to foreign exchange losses and lower gains on asset sales.Operating profit rose 15.0 percent to a record high 119.61 billion yen as revenue gained 4.3 percent to 1.07 trillion yen, a company statement said.Konica Minolta decided in 2006 to sell its high-end camera business to Sony after the market become too competitive.It said it was now enjoying strong demand for multi-function photocopiers, optical pickup lenses for next-generation DVD players and film used to make liquid crystal displays.For the current fiscal year to March, the company forecast a net profit of 70 billion yen, operating earnings of 120 billion and revenue of 1.11 trillion.

[Author]

May 22, 2008 at 3:05 PM