The income tax department has asked IT company Cognizant to provide documents related to the bribe paid to the Tamil Nadu government officials to secure a building, The Economic Times reported, citing sources.

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The taxman has also initiated an inquiry into Cognizant's withdrawal of a depreciation claim on the building, the sources mentioned above told ET.

“They (Cognizant) had withdrawn the claim of depreciation on the asset for which improper payments were made. Our inquiries are related to that,” an income tax official told ET.

Income tax rules allow companies to claim depreciation on commercial buildings.

Cognizant has been asked by the income tax department to submit the related documents by March 10, the report said, adding that the company had made voluntary disclosures related to the illegal payments to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September 2016 after it discovered the 2014 payments in internal audits.

The taxman had sought the documents related to the illegal payments back in 2016. However, the company was unable to provide it following a court case with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) that resulted in the exit of Cognizant’s two top executives, president Gordon J Coburn and chief legal and corporate affairs officer Steven Schwartz, the report said.