CUTTACK: The GST enforcement wing in the state on Friday claimed to have busted a financial fraud involving loss of revenue amounting to Rs 115.10 crore through the use of fake bills as high as Rs 641crore to claim input tax credit.
The input tax credit is an option in the filing of GST, which allows the traders to claim credit for taxes paid on purchase. Sushil Kumar Lohani, commissioner of commercial taxes & GST, said, "The two alleged masterminds of the case - Gurdit Singh (managing partner of M/s Tirupati Traders and authorized representative of M/s Satguru Metals & Power Pvt. Ltd), and Sujay Maitra (director of M/s Smartageis Trade Venture Private Limited) - were caught from Rourkela and Bhubaneswar, respectively, on Thursday."
The offence is cognizable and non-bailable under the GST Act. The duo in collusion with others availed themselves of bogus input tax credit (ITC) by raising fake purchase invoices in the names of 16 fictitious/ non-existent business entities located at Angul, Rourkela, Banai, Ersama, Tirtol, Riamal and Sundargarh, officials said.
During investigation, it was found that the two accused of the creation and operation of the fake firms had obtained the proof of identity such as PAN, Aadhaar, bank pass books, etc., from innocent people like plumbers, drivers, electrical mechanics, LPG delivery boys, unemployed youth and people below poverty line living in houses built under the Indira Awaas Yojana and availing of the PDS facility in different areas like Panikoili, Baripada, Rasgovindpur, Bargarh, Puri and Balasore and Jharkhand.
The identity documents were collected on the pretext of engaging them in different companies.
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