January 14
Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has busted a network indulged in issuing fake invoices. It is estimated that the network gave a fake invoice worth over ₹4,500 crore with an input tax credit (ITC) implication of over ₹700 crore.
One person has been arrested, a statement issued by the Finance Ministry said Friday.
Based on a case against some fake firms, DGGI raided the places in Delhi which were mentioned in the physical address from where GST returns were actually filed. The agency found that the proprietor is engaged in providing services of ‘Cloud Storage’ on his servers to various customers for maintaining their financial accounts.
Suspicious servers
On scrutiny of one of the suspicious servers, details of certain firms were found in tally data. Proprietor informed that this tally data is being maintained by one syndicate based in Kolkata. After obtaining details, searches were conducted at various premises in Kolkata on January 10.
During the search, many incriminating documents, including mobiles phones, various cheque books, stamps of various firms and SIM cards were recovered. On analysis of electronic devices, documents, mobiles and e-mail of these persons, it has been found that these persons are remotely maintaining data on the server located at the premises in Delhi.
“Scrutiny of Tally data has shown that there are 636 firms being operated by this syndicate. The mastermind of the syndicate has accepted that they have issued only invoices in these firms and not supplied any goods against them. They have issued invoices involving the taxable value of approx. . ₹4,521 crore having ITC implication of approx. 741 crore,” the statement said.
During the investigation, GST amounting to ₹4.52 crore has been deposited by reversal of ITC available in the ITC ledger of these firms. Further, till now approx. ₹7 crore lying in various bank accounts of these firms have been frozen. The mastermind was arrested on Thursday. Further investigation is under progress, the statement added.