HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Goods and Services Tax Commissionerate arrested two more persons in connection with the Rs 8.23 crore GST input tax credit fraud on Friday. The fraud, involving a network of unknown assailants who were floating multiple dummy firms using which fraudulent input tax credit was availed and utilised, was unearthed recently.
The arrested were identified as Rajesh Dhoot and Mukesh Dhoot, who have been running Likasan Traders and Om Dhanalaxmi Traders from Katedan Industrial Estate and have been trading in a paper scrap for several years.
The two men, who are in their mid-40s, were arrested after the official premises of two separate firms registered with GSTN were searched by the officials. Soon after the duo was produced before the Judge for Economic Offences which also handles all cases booked under the newly rolled out GST tax schedules and remanded to judicial custody.
“They are the beneficiaries of the fraud. A number of their suspicious transactions are being verified. We suspect many more persons are involved,” said an official. In a separate incident from November 1, two persons —Majjiga Narasimha Raju and Shaik Shaker—were arrested after they were found to have issued invoices worth `25 lakh and `9 lakh respectively to dummy firms. This was done to avail the required input tax credit and make uncalled for benefits.
As many as 20 firms were initially identified to be involved in the high-technology fraud. While most of them were found to be fictitious in spite of being registered with the GSTN, officials have found some of them to be physically operational on the ground. The challenge before the officials of GST Commissionerate is now to identify those with a legible fraud and devise methods to do so.