Maharashtra: CGST officials bust fake input tax credit racket worth Rs 13 cr

Raigad (Maharashtra) [India], March 5 (ANI): A team of CGST Commissionerate, Raigad, Mumbai Zone, busted a fake GST input tax credit (ITC) racket and arrested the proprietor of a Kalamboli-based firm named Zaid Enterprises on Saturday.
The firm was engaged in availing and passing on fake GST input tax credit of Rs 13 crores, by using bogus invoices of Rs 70 crores.
Based on a tip-off from the Central Intelligence Unit (CIU) of CGST Mumbai zone, a team from Anti-Evasion Wing of CGST Commissionerate Raigad initiated an investigation, which revealed that Zaid Enterprises had availed fake ITC on the basis of bogus invoices issued by more than 10 non-existing firms and passed this fake ITC to other firms, informed Neeraj Kansal, Commissioner, CGST and C.EX, Raigad.
"The proprietor of the firm had not been operating from the Principal place of business declared in the GST portal but instead was operating on the move. He was traced and after a 15 km chase, apprehended from near a petrol station in Navi Mumbai", said the CGST.
The accused has been arrested on March 4 under Section 69 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017 for the committal of offences under Section 132 of the said Act. He was produced before the Judicial Magistrate, Panvel, wherein he has been sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
Based on the past trend analysis and data analytics tools, officers had been keeping a watch on the number of such fake entities which had been mushrooming and operating from a small locality in Taloja, Navi Mumbai. They had been taking GST registrations based on forged or stolen identities or for the sole purpose of generating, availing, utilizing and passing on of fake ITC.
CGST Raigad Commissionerate has detected tax evasion of nearly Rs 700 Crore and recovered Rs 405 crore and arrested nine persons, in the financial year 2021-22, informed the CGST. (ANI)