Central GST & Central Excise (CGSTCE), Raipur arrested a trader of Iron and Steel trader, Mithilesh Tiwari, here other day. The arrest took place following preliminary investigation which found that the trader’s firm M/s H K Enterprises had wrongly availed Input Tax Credit (ITC) to the tune of Rs 21.31 crore on the basis of bogus invoices issued by many firms.

 

“During the investigation it was found that M/s H K Enterprises wrongfully availed ITC on bogus invoices issued by M/s Om Ispat, Bhilai and M/s Naryan Steels, Bhilai wherein it has shown to forward wrong input Tax Credit of

Rs 21.31 crore. M/s Om Ispat, Bhilai and M/s Naryan Steels, Bhilai, are non-existent firms which had been solely created for passing on of wrong ITC by issuance of bogus,” Sharwan Bansal, Joint Commissioner, CGSTCE, affirmed through an official communique.

 

Bansal further said, the offences by Mithliesh Tiwari are punishable under Section 132 of the CGST Act 2017 and thus he was arrested by the officials of CGSTCE under provision of Section 69(1) of the CGST Act 2017. “Preliminary enquiry indicates that there are rackets of dealers dealing with fake ITC bills spreading across many states. Further Investigation in this regard is under progress,” the communiqué stated.

 

In the last 3 months, according to Bansal’s statement, CGST Department has come heavily upon the taxpayer involved in the business of issuing fake invoices. Thorough data analysis supported by actionable intelligence has resulted in identifying several big rackets of fake invoice. Modus-operandi involves creation of a web of fake firms in the name of confidants such as drivers/servants/employees. The bogus bills are further routed through multiple entities in different jurisdictions to colour the transaction as genuine. After multiple searches and inspection the racket has been busted by CGSTCE, it maintained.

 

It is pertinent here to recall that another big trader in Raipur involved in evasion of GST to the tune of Rs 12 crore was arrested by the Department in September, 2020. This clearly reflects the seriousness of the department which has deterred other such culprits in indulging in unlawful practices thus enhancing the revenue for State. Besides this, several searches have already resulted in detection of tax evasion of more than 100 crore and out of which about 47 crore have already been recovered by the department.

 

Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh is in fact among the top performing states of the country in terms of GST revenue collection. Robust growth of 14%, 31% & 22% has been achieved by CGST department in revenue for August, September and October, 2020 as compared to revenue collection in previous year.

 

Statistically, it is worthwhile to mention that CGST Raipur Commissioner has collected total revenue of Rs 4,859 Cr in FY 2020-21 (Till October 2020) as compared to Rs 5,001 Cr in FY 2019-20 (Till October 2019);

resulting in a shortfall of only Rs. 142 Cr (2.84%) on YTD basis.

 

This reflects that the State Local Economy is bouncing back and covering the losses due to COVID 19 pandemic. While the government policies have ensured seamless transition to normalcy; effort of the department has also bored fruits.

 

After reaching consensus on Compensation cess related issues with all the State Governments, now the Government has brought full attention towards revenue augmentation and bringing process efficiency in the GST regime. e-invoicing has been launched for large taxpayers from Oct 1, 2020. Aadhar based authentication has started for taking new registration creating major deterrence for fake invoice related scammers. GSTN has improved the capacity of the portal to handle as many as 3 lakh returns at a time. Further, recently Government has announced Quarterly return monthly payment scheme further facilitating small taxpayers having turnover up to 5