The state GST (Goods and Services Tax) enforcement wing unearthed a racket involved in fake invoicing of 1,819 crore to claim input task credit (ITC) worth Rs 323 crore and arrested two persons. It’s one of the biggest GST frauds detected in recent times.Addressing a press conference Commercial Taxes and GST Commissioner Sushil Kumar Lohani said Amit Kumar Agrawal, a chartered accountant, and his accomplice Satindra Kumar Yadav, had been arrested for allegedly creating and operating 13 fictitious firms.“They have availed and passed ITC worth ₹323 crore by raising fake purchase and sale invoices to the tune of ₹1,819 crores ,” he said.
He also said that the actual loss to the government is ₹58.14 crore as the ITC was passed on to recipients outside the state of Odisha. The duo committed the fraud by taking advantage of the newly-introduced simplification of GST.
Since the fraud spread over to West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, officers moved to different states and conducted the investigation, taking the help of the jurisdictional officers concerned.
