• Notification Date: 23-02-2024
• Notification No: N/A

20 Prime Accused Individuals in GST Fake Billing Fraud Booked

Twenty key conspirators arrested over the alleged GST (Goods and Services Tax) fake billing fraud to the tune of hundreds of crores have been booked under different sections of the stringent GUJCTOC (Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime) Act, 2015, said officials.

As per the details received from the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) Department’s officials, the department in a joint operation with Bhavnagar police had unearthed a racket linked to a fresh modus operandi to obtain fake GST registration, generating bogus bills for fake metal scrap firms, availing Input Tax Credit (ITC) and evading taxes. So far, 141 people have been arrested over five different police complaints registered in this connection, and fraud to the tune of hundreds of crores was detected.

The officials at the Bhavnagar Local Crime Branch said 20 key conspirators involved in this case had other criminal cases filed against them. Subsequently, police filed an application with the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Bhavnagar on February 17 to book them under different sections of the GUJCTOC Act, 2015. The court had accepted the application and permitted the police to go ahead.

The accused, as per people in the know, lured poor people and took them to the Aadhaar centres where they changed the mobile numbers of the Aadhaar card holders. Such tampered cards were used, officials said, by the accused to get Goods and Services Tax numbers (GSTN) and PAN cards to carry out fraud. Officials have so far found 13,345 bogus GSTNs. Of these, 4,308 GSTNs were registered in Gujarat while the remaining were registered in Maharashtra, Delhi, Bihar, and other states.

The SGST officials had started a procedure for the cancellation of such fake GSTNs in Gujarat while other states’ GST officials were also informed. The officials are also probing to find out who are the beneficiaries of ITC (Input Tax Credit) gained by using the fake GSTNs.