BENGALURU: The Bengaluru Zonal Unit (BZU) of the Directorate General of Goods & Services Tax (GST) Intelligence (DGGI) recently busted a huge racket of GST evasion of around Rs 200 crore, and nabbed some key people behind the fraud.
In well-coordinated search operations across the country in the past few weeks, the DGGI, BZU unearthed GST fraud committed by various entities, including some well-established companies involved in creating fake invoices of Rs 1,000 crore, and GST evasion of around Rs 200 crore.
In a major operation, a case was registered against a Bengaluru-based tech company, which was allegedly “involved in issuance of fake invoices to well-established Chinese companies across India without any supply of goods/ services” stated a DGGI, BZU press statement.
According to the DGGI, an amount of Rs 53 crore transferred by some Chinese entities to the said company was reportedly utilised for funding payouts to companies, individuals and other suspicious activities in India. The activities were coordinated by a Chinese national through social media WeChat/WhatsApp.
In a second instance, the DGGI, BZU registered a case against another private limited company for supplying bogus invoices without accompanying goods to some well-established multinational companies (MNCs) in the State. “A major recovery of Rs 15 crore was effected from one of the recipient MNCs. The directors of the fraudulent companies have been arrested,” said the official DGGI release.
“These bogus companies have allegedly raised fake invoices worth Rs 500 crore, involving GST of around Rs 80 crore, which has been availed by various well-established companies from across India. Consequent to searches conducted at the premises of major recipients in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, an amount of Rs 12 crore was recovered till date. Investigations are in progress to identify other beneficiaries to recover the tax liability,” stated the DGGI.
Among the GST evaders is a scrap trader from Bengaluru. “He is a repeat offender and has availed fake income tax credit (ITC) of Rs 6.5 crore,” they added. The DGGI, BZU recovered Rs 1,038 crore during 2019-20 and detected tax evasion of Rs 3,400 crore. During 2020-21, an amount of Rs 478 crore was recovered till date, according to the official statement.