Panipat is globally popular for its handloom business but it is getting infamy due to Goods and Services Tax (GST) scams. According to the Central Excise and Taxation Department and the state excise and taxation department, bogus billing has touched Rs 2,000 crore in Panipat alone. Around 65 cases of GST frauds, 26 of them in Panipat, have been registered across the state. As many as 45 non-existing firms have been identified by the CGST and SGST authorities in the last six months. As many as 34,000 firms have been registered under the GST-20,000 firms with the state Excise and Taxation Department and 14,000 with the Central GST Department. The fact is that the delay in the verification of firms is giving rise to GST frauds. The teams of the Central GST Department from Panchkula unearthed a scam of fake bills amounting to Rs 450 crore on January 4 and found false input tax claim of Rs 30 crore. Just after a day, the teams of the State Excise and Taxation Department identified 21 non-existent firms, which had claimed an input tax credit of Rs 49 crore through bogus sale of Rs 470 crore. Just after two months, the State Excise and Taxation Department unearthed a bogus billing scam of Rs 147 crore committed by two firms in Panipat city on March 9. They had claimed tax credit of Rs 13.78 crore. Besides, the department also identified two more firms that had allegedly issued bogus bills to the tune of Rs 89.3 crore on March 10 without the movement of goods.
The CIA-2 team arrested Rajesh Mittal, Inder Pratap Singh, and Manish Kumar on June 4 and their associate Satnarayan Rohilla on June 6. During the investigation, it was revealed that they had issued bogus bills amounting to Rs 800 crore to around 400 firms. The team identified 19 non-existing firms registered on the GST portal, out of which 17 were registered at Panipat and two at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Vinod Khandelwal, president, Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Panipat Chapter, says, “It is unfortunate that Panipat is getting a bad name due to GST frauds but this cannot be possible without the connivance of government officials, as the GST is handled electronically”. Ajay Singla, an RTI activist, says that it is sad that Panipat is becoming infamous due to GST scams while in reality the bogus billing scandal flourishing in connivance with government officials is spread throughout the state. Fake bill scams or GST frauds are happening due to the lethargic attitude of Taxation Department officials, as they are not keen to verify the particulars of a firm after its registration under the GST or physically verify it. Also, there is no check on bank transactions of these firms, he adds. People involved in bogus billing should be checked at the beginning but officials never do it, says Singla.
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