Vigilant GST Officials Uncover Tax Fraud Worth Rs 224 Crore By Eight Trading Companies

Goods and Services Tax (GST) officials have uncovered an alleged tax fraud of Rs 224 crore and ascertained forged invoices worth Rs 1,289 crore by a group of eight companies dealing in trade of iron and steel products, reports Press Trust of India (PTI).

According to a press release from the Hyderabad Central GST Commissionerate on Tuesday (12 March), the officials arrested a key suspect involved in the racket and recovered Rs 19.75 crore from him.

In simultaneous searches carried out in the residential and business premises of the ten companies, GST officials found fake invoices without the commensurate supply of TMT bars, MS bars, MS flat products among others.

The promoters of these companies were also found to be passing on the input tax credit to other taxpayers within the same group, besides some other taxpayers since July 2017.

The fake invoices carried a cumulative value of about Rs 1,289 crore and input tax credit of about Rs 224 crore.

“Investigation also, prima facie, reveals that the above modus operandi is also being adopted to defraud the Banks for claiming ineligible credit facilities or Letters of Credit (LCs), without any collateral securities," it added.

Rs 10,000 Crore Recovered

Recently Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBITC) Member (Investigation) John Joseph revealed that GST evasion amounting to around Rs 20,000 crore has been detected by the government between April 2018 and February 2019, of which approximately Rs 10,000 crore has been recovered.

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