INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
GST officers unearthed fake invoicing racket worth Rs 38.5 crore in tax evasionNew Delhi: The finance ministry said Goods and Services Tax
(GST) officers had unearthed a racket of 54 bogus firms involved in fake invoicing of Rs 611 crore involving tax evasion of Rs 38.5
crore.Delhi South CGST Commissionerate conducted searches and inspections spread across Delhi, unearthing a cartel running 54 bogus firms
registered in the Delhi-NCR region engaged in fake invoicing and circular trading.Incriminating documents such as rubber stamps and
letterheads of various firms, mobile phones, laptops etc., have been seized from the search premises."Preliminary enquiry conducted so far
into these transactions has revealed fake invoicing of around Rs
611 crores and tax evasion of over Rs
statement.Three key persons of the cartel, namely Ankit Gupta, the mastermind managing these bogus firms and two of his accomplices,
Rabiendra Singh and Rajendra Singh, were arrested on February 23 and remanded 14 days' judicial custody.In a separate statement, the
ministry said the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Commissionerate, Faridabad, of Panchkula CGST Zone, on February 23 arrested two
persons for running a fake billing racket, involving five dummy firms, for issuance of fake invoices of over Rs 200 crore without actual
supply of goods and availing and passing fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) amounting to Rs 31.85 crore.As per GST law, issuing an invoice or
bill without supply of goods or services and wrongful availment or utilisation of Input Tax Credit is a cognisable and non-bailable offence
if the amount is over Rs 5 crore."Both the proprietors of the said firms have accepted that they have availed and passed on fraudulent ITC
31.85 crore, without actual supply of goods to inter-state recipients, has accepted the total GST liability of Rs
31.85 crore during the initial investigation
The quantum may increase in future," the statement added.
