Officers of the Central GST Commissionerate of Coimbatore have arrested V. Jayachandran of Aravind Traders, Kanakkampalayam, Udumalpet, on charges of evading GST of more than ₹ 5 crore.
Officials gathered intelligence about invoice trading (bill trading) without supply of goods. In the course of investigation, the GST Commissionerate found that Aravind Traders of Udumalpet had indulged in bill trading by way of receiving and issuing invoices without actual receipt or supply of goods.
It was also found that the unit had availed of ineligible input tax credit (ITC) fraudulently without actual receipt of goods and have passed on the said ITC to their various buyer units intra-state/inter-state, who are mostly timber/scrap traders without actual supply of goods resulting in huge evasion of GST.
Jayachandran (55), proprietor of the firm, admitted to the offence and was arrested by officers of the Head Quarters Preventive Unit – Coimbatore and was subsequently remanded in judicial custody for a period of 15 days by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Coimbatore. The total tax evasion works out to ₹ 10.42 crores. Under the GST law, the supply of goods without invoice or issue of invoice without goods or availing of ITC against the invoices issued without supply of goods is serious offence attracting arrest, if the amount of tax evaded exceeds ₹ 2 crores. Since the evasion involved is more than the prescribed value, it is a cognisable and bailable offence as per the provision of Section 132 CGST Act of 2017. Further investigation is on.
Source from: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/udumalpet-trader-arrested-for-cgst-evasion/article66576961.ece