KOZHIKODE: Officials led by the Joint Commissioner of State Tax, Kozhikode, raided 20 commercial establishments in Kozhikode city and five houses of shop owners in connection with the evasion of tax worth Rs 27 crore. The GST intelligence team that raided 10 shops at SM Street was locked inside one of the shops by the staff which led to arguments between them.
The raids on the houses of shop owners were held around 8.30 AM on Friday. The raids were held on four houses in Kozhikode and one in Malappuram. The raids on the shops started at 10 AM. The ruckus occurred only during the inspection at SM Street.
“There were some arguments between the traders and the GST officials at SM Street. However, the issue was settled after we presented the evidence we had collected over the past two months,” said T A Ashokan, Joint Commissioner of State Tax (Intelligence), State GST Department, Kozhikode.
The primary investigation of the State GST Intelligence wing has unearthed tax irregularities to the tune of Rs 27 crore in 20 establishments in the city. The officials have been watching the functioning of the shops for the past two months.
The functioning of the establishments came to the notice of the State GST officials when it was discovered that the state tax was not paid even though the establishments registered a turnover of lakhs and crores. The shop owners claimed that they bought goods from Gujarat and Rajasthan.
They also said that the GST has been paid in the respective states from where the goods were purchased.
They showed tax payment documents but no goods were transported based on them. In most cases, the details of the wholesaler in Gujarat who claims to have supplied the products and paid tax were fake.
They made fake tax payment documents and added the tax to the price of the products while selling them in Kozhikode. All 20 stores raided on Friday are related.
Their owners kept a record of selling things back and forth to each other and showed it to the officials to distract their attention. Ultimately no one had to pay the taxes.
All 14 teams were deployed for the inspections. Each team contained a minimum of five members of the state GST department. The officials collected the financial transaction details and sales details of the establishments and their owners.