By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, Jan 5:
The officers of the Thane Central Goods & Services Tax (CGST) Commissionerate of Mumbai Zone busted a fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) racket involving GST of Rs 22 crore and arrested a father-son duo in the case on Tuesday.
The accused who were arrested under sections 69, 132(1)(b) and (c) of the CGST Act 2017, were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by the metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai.
According to the CGST officials, acting on a tip-off from Central Intelligence Unit (CIU), Mumbai CGST Zone, the officers arrested two businessmen who happened to be father and son duo, from their firms located at Kandivali West in North Mumbai.
The firms-M/s.Shah Enterprises and M/s. US Enterprises, registered with GST for trading in Ferrous Waste and Scrap etc, were indulging in fraudulent availment and passing of Input Tax Credit (ITC) to the tune of Rs 11.80 crore and Rs 10.23 crore respectively without receiving the goods or services in violation of the provisions of CGST Act 2017,” said a CGST official.
Both these firms were availing fake ITC from the fake entities and passing on the same to other entities of this vicious network. This operation had been a part of a large-scale operation launched by the CGST Mumbai Zone to stamp out the fake ITC network which had been causing unhealthy competition with honest taxpayers and defrauding the government exchequer of its rightful taxes. The department is going to intensify the drive against the fraudsters and tax evaders in the days to come., the official added.
During the 2020-21 financial year, the CGST zones and the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) had booked about 8,000 cases involving fake ITC of over Rs 35,000 crore. With raids continuing through out 2021, the number of cases are expected to rise in multiples.
