CGST Navi Mumbai Commissionerate busts fake IT racket of about Rs 21 cr, one arrested

Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 16 (ANI): The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Commissionerate, Navi Mumbai busted a fake ITC racket of about Rs 21 crores and arrested the proprietor of Shree Ram Enterprise on Wednesday.
According to the CGST Commissionerate, the firm was engaged in availing, utilizing, and passing on a fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) on the bogus invoices of around 100 Crores thereby defrauding the government exchequer.
CGST commissioner, Prabhat Kumar said that a team of officers of Anti-Evasion, CGST, Navi Mumbai conducted an inquiry against the aforesaid firm. As per the statement of Prabhat, the proprietor is involved in the trade of a scrap of ferrous and other metals.
"However, the investigation revealed that the taxpayer has availed and passed on fraudulent ITC from various non-existing/bogus firms," Prabhat added.
CGST commissioner also said that the accused has been arrested under Section 69 (1) of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017 for committal of offences under Section 132 (1) (b) and (c) of the said Act and was produced before the Judicial Magistrate First class, Vashi at Belapur on Wednesday and has been sent on judicial custody for 14 days.

According to the CGST commissioner, this case is a part of the anti-evasion drive launched by CGST, Mumbai Zone against the fraudsters and tax evaders who create unhealthy competition for compliant taxpayers and defraud the government exchequer. He further added, "As a part of this drive, Navi Mumbai Commissionerate has detected tax evasion of about Rs 500 Crore, recovered Rs. 20 crores and arrested 13 persons recently."

Prabhat also discuss the investigation process where he said that the CGST department used the data analysis tools to identify tax evaders. He further added that by using data analysis and network analysis, the officers of CGST Mumbai zone have booked over 625 tax evasion cases, detected tax evasion of Rs 5500 crores, recovered Rs 630 crore and arrested more than 50 persons, in the last five months.

CGST commissioner also stated, "The CGST department is going to intensify the drive against the fraudsters and tax evaders which are causing unfair competition with honest taxpayers and defrauding the government exchequer of its rightful revenue in the coming days and months." (ANI)