VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh State Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (APSDRI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 34.01 crore on Fastlane Information Technologies Private Ltd, one of the companies involved in the AP FiberNet case, for alleged tax evasion. The company was served a demand for tax along with interest, and the penalty was imposed for violation of the provisions of the APGST Act, 2017.
According to APSDRI, GST is an indirect tax and the seller needs to collect it from the buyer, and the same has to be deposited with the government. Fastlane had collected the GST from its buyers but reportedly did not deposit the same with the government within the stipulated time, for which the penalty was imposed.
The firm had allegedly evaded the tax and diverted the funds to the tune of Rs 10.81 crore to its related firms/companies. “This money allegedly pertains to the AP FiberNet project,’’ the officials said, adding that the APCID has also filed a case.
According to the officials, Fastlane was utilised by Tera Software, which is also one of the firms involved in the alleged scam in the AP FiberNet Project, to divert and misappropriate the funds released by the AP State FiberNet Ltd.
The former managing director of Fastlane, Viplav Kumar Valluri, in his statement, said they could not pay the tax as the APSFL had not paid the invoice amount to them even though they deducted TDS. “On verification by the APSDRI, it was found that the claim is wrong. They had received the sum and the same was diverted to their related firms/companies like Netops, XYZ Innovations and Koffee Media. Netops had invested that amount in the real estate firm being owned by Vemuri Hari Prasad, who is a prime accused in the alleged FiberNet scam,” the officials said.
They further said as the firm had not paid the amount to its vendor viz Ingram, it approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The application was admitted in NCLT and Fastlane is now under the insolvency process.
The officials claimed that Viplav, in his statement, stated that Fastlane was incorporated at the request of Tummala Gopichand, MD of Tera Software to assist him in the APSFL project. Gopichand is also an accused in the FiberNet case.
The officials further added that Fastlane had stopped filing GST returns in Andhra Pradesh in September 2020, and its registration was cancelled by the government. Viplav who was arrested by CID earlier, is now on bail.