Officials of the State Tax (ST) made the first arrest in the State under the SGST Act in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.
The Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of ST, under the guidance of the Joint Commissioner of ST, Visakhapatnam division, arrested Duddu Sekhar, proprietor of Sekhar Traders and Venkat Sai Traders, on February 15.
As per a press release, the accused, registered under the GST Act for doing business in iron scrap at Gajuwaka Circle, allegedly misused online E-Way bills for an amount of ₹14.40 crore and evaded tax to the tune of ₹2.60 crore.
The transactions appeared to be bogus as per the online data, as they had supplied and received goods from the same dealers in Telangana.
The accused committed an offence under the provisions of Section 132 of the SGST Act, 2017, and he was arrested under Section 69 of the SGST Act.
He was produced before the District and Sessions Judge Court-cum-Special Economic Offence Court in Visakhapatnam.
The court ordered judicial remand for the accused, and he was handed over to the Central Prison on February 16.
Further investigation is in progress and action is being initiated to recover the taxes evaded.
As per the officials, it was noticed that a few more dealers were also involved in the issue, and the total tax evaded was expected to be around ₹10 crore.
