The multi-crore racket involving GST evasion unearthed here last week continues to swell with two more fake firms detected and estimated a further loss of more than Rs2.33 crore to the state exchequer, the Excise and Taxation Department has said. Acting on a complaint of by department, the police have registered two more FIRs at the Ambala City police station against Ravi Kumar, who floated a fake firm by the name of Alex Traders, and Hem Chand of Haryana Steel.
Ravi caused a loss of over Rs1.93 crore, while Hem Chand caused a loss of Rs39.86 lakh, the police have said. Last week, five traders were booked for causing a loss of over Rs6 crore to the state exchequer by floating fake firms on the GST portal. With the registration of two more cases, the total GST evasion detected so far has crossed Rs8.25-crore mark and the number of fake firms detected has touched seven. All seven fake firms were registered in Ambala City.
Excise and Taxation Officer (ETO) Dhanpati Bhardwaj said the accused had floated firms with the help of fake documents to do trading of almost Rs13 crore and claimed input tax credit of more than Rs2.33 crore in connivance with other traders of Haryana and neighbouring states within two months. According to the official records, Ravi caused a loss of over Rs1.93 crore by doing trading of over Rs10.73 crore in August and September and Hem Chand caused a loss of over Rs39.86 lakh by doing trading of over Rs2.21 crore in July and August.
On a complaint of the ETO addressed to Ambala SP Abhishek Jorwal, the district police booked the multi-crore GST scam accused under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC. No one has been arrested so far. “The police are on the lookout for the accused and are raiding their possible hideouts,” said a senior police officer. The police were also on the lookout for other traders in Haryana and neighbouring states besides the department officials, if any, who connived with the main accused to execute the multi-crore fraud. The police did not rule out the involvement of some department officials in the scam. “We are probing all angles and will go to the bottom of it by nailing all those involved in the racket,” the officer added.
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