IT Correspondent
New Delhi, July 12:
Three traders were arrested by the officers of the Anti Evasion branch of the Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) Commissionerate, West Delhi unit, on charges of claiming input tax credit (ITC) worth nearly Rs 91 crore by under-invoicing/ fake invoicing, and were sent to judicial custody till July 24.
The accused Shubham Gupta, Vinod Jain, and Yogesh Goel were booked under section 132 of the CGST Act on July 10 for claiming inadmissible credit and defrauding the state exchequer. They were remanded to judicial custody by the Metropolitan Magistrate for 14 days.
The accused knowingly committed offences under section 132(1) (b) and 132(1)(c) of the CGST Act, 2017 which are cognizable and non-bailable, as per the provisions of section 132(5) and are punishable under clause (i) of the subsection (1) of Section 132 of the Act ibid.
The modus operandi involved floating of multiple firms with the intent to avail/utilize and pass on inadmissible credit. The firms involved in this network were M/s Girdhar Enterprises, Sadar Bazar, New Delhi, M/s Akshay Traders, Shalimar Baug, New Delhi, M/s Shree Padmavati Enterprises, Ghazipur, New Delhi, M/s Arun Sales, and 19 others. These 23 firms were floated to generate “goods-less” invoices with intention to pass on fraudulent ITC without paying actual GST to the government.
Late Dinesh Gupta, Shubham Gupta, Vinod Jain, and Yogesh Goel were associated with this clandestine business of generating/selling fake invoices. They were dealing in various commodities and involved in the generation of “goods-less” invoices worth Rs. 551 crore and passing inadmissible ITC amounting to nearly Rs. 91crore. During interrogation, the accused admitted their guilt.
CGST, Delhi Zone has been making sustained efforts to check evasion of GST and it has unearthed the evasion of over Rs. 91.256 crore in the current financial year.
