Itanagar, Feb 5: The Central GST Commissionerate, Itanagar, has unearthed a racket involving the issuance of fake invoices worth ?658.55 crore without any supply of goods, officials said on Tuesday.
As part of a nationwide drive to curb fraud in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system, the GST formations under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Ministry of Finance, are taking action against non-existent or bogus registrations and fake invoices, an official said.
During the drive, it was found that M/s Siddhi Vinayak Trade Merchants, a firm registered in Arunachal Pradesh, had fraudulently facilitated the passage of Input Tax Credit (ITC) worth ?99.30 crore to 58 firms across the country, the official said.
The fraudulent activities involved the use of forged documents to create a fake firm, the issuance of invoices without actual supply of goods, and manipulation of GST returns to illegally avail ITC, causing a loss of nearly ?100 crore to the government exchequer, the official added.
As part of the investigation, searches were conducted recently in Kolkata, leading to the seizure of crucial evidence, including seven mobile phones, one iPad, and various documents such as 53 PAN and Aadhaar cards belonging to different individuals and 17 rent agreements linked to the fraud.
Officials also found multiple KYC (Know Your Customer) documents of fictitious individuals in the possession of the accused, suggesting the scale of the fraudulent operations. It was revealed that the accused were actively managing and filing fraudulent GST returns from the searched location, orchestrating a complex network of fake transactions using forged documents and identities to facilitate ITC claims.
Considering the forgery of KYC documents to create the firm, the Central GST department lodged an FIR with the Itanagar Police. Based on the FIR, two masterminds behind the racket, Ashutosh Kumar Jha and Bipin Kumar Jha, were apprehended from Darbhanga, Bihar.
On Monday, the duo was arrested by Central GST, Itanagar, under Section 69 of the CGST Act, 2017, the official said, adding that further investigations are underway and stringent action will be taken against those involved in such illegal activities.
