BHUBANESWAR: The State GST Enforcement Wing on Friday nabbed two traders for allegedly availing and passing bogus input tax credit (ITC) of Rs 115.1 crore on the strength of fake invoices to the tune of Rs 641 crore.
The two accused -- the managing partner of Tirupati Traders and authorised representative of Satguru Metals and Power Pvt Ltd Gurdit Dang and Director of Smartageis Trade Venture Private Limited of Rourkela Sujay Maitra -- were being interrogated.
While Dang was arrested from Rourkela, Maitra was nabbed in Bhubaneswar. The two in collusion with others have availed bogus ITC by raising fake purchase invoices against 16 fictitious/non-existent business entities located at Angul, Rourkela, Banai, Ersama, Tirtol, Riamal, and Sundargarh.
The fraudulent activities came to the fore during an investigation made on a complaint filed by one dealer of Jogeswarpur in Balasore district regarding the supply of goods by the accused persons on the strength of fake invoices. This led to the interrogation of five existing dealers of Panikoili, Baripada, Rasgobindpur, Bargarh, Puri, and Balasore and they admitted to it.
A GST official said the accused persons had obtained identity documents, including PAN, Aadhaar, Bank Passbook of innocent people such as plumbers, drivers, electrical mechanics, gas-distributing boys, unemployed youth, and people below the poverty line for creation and operation of the fake firms.
"They had collected documents from Panikoili, Baripada, Rasgobindpur, Bargarh, Puri, and Balasore and Jharkhand under the pretext of engaging people in different companies and in some cases to provide them a regular monthly income of Rs 5,000 per month. They misutilised the documents to obtain GST registration," he said.
The house rent agreement in all 16 firms were also found to be forged. In two cases, the house rent agreements have been signed during 2018 in the name of a house owner who died in 2007.
Investigations revealed goods were manufactured without payment of tax by Satguru Metals and Power Pvt Ltd and to regularize the illegal transaction, purchase and sale invoices in the name of fictitious firms were being made instead of raising purchase and sale invoices in the name of Satguru Metals.
New mobile SIM in the name of proprietors of fake firms was taken by Dang and Maitra without their knowledge for the generation of e-waybills and the operation of banking transactions.
While goods weighing in tonne were shown to have been transported through two-wheelers, cars, three-wheelers, scooters on many occasions, the investigation revealed, illegal money accrued from the fake business has been received by the two through different channels and routes.
The State GST Enforcement Wing has so far arrested 20 fraudsters for their involvement in the issuance of fake invoices. In order to eliminate bogus registration, the registration process has been streamlined. A two-month-long special drive starting from Friday has been launched to weed out non-existing registrants.
Commissioner of CT and GST Sushil Kumar Lohani has appealed to people not to share their identity documents, personal details, and bank details with any unauthorised persons and not to permit any unauthorised persons to operate a business or bank account on their behalf or in their name. They have been urged to intimate the nearest GST office if they notice their credentials and other personal documents are being misutilised by someone.