Pune GST Intelligence exposes a multi-state, Rs 145 crore bogus input tax credit scheme
Official sources said here on Tuesday that the Pune zone unit of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) had made significant progress in busting a multi-state fraudulent input tax credit (ITC) scheme worth over Rs 145 crore and had arrested one individual from Rajasthan.
The examination, which began with certain enterprises in Pune and Goa, revealed that the tentacles extended across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, with the prospect of further states not being ruled out. Over the weekend, the Pune zonal unit carried out the operation.
According to the sources, at least 50 fictitious companies participated in the fraud, using forged, altered, or mutated versions of papers to claim enormous sums of ITC in the absence of any real supply of products.
Investigating CDRs, CAFs, filing patterns, and bank account analysis, the zonal unit detectives came to the conclusion that the syndicate, operating out of various cities and states across the nation, was setting up phony companies with fictitious identities created by forging legal documents, even circumventing the special biometric requirements for SIM card issuance.
The GST investigators received information that Rahul Kumar, the purported mastermind of the fraudulent companies and the whole scheme, was based in Jaipur after tracking down the offenders in a number of locations across many states.
“After analyzing the data from SIM operators and a few e-commerce deliveries, we were able to pinpoint his precise position. An officer from the DGGI Pune zonal unit said, “The team stormed his residence on Friday, discovered damning material, and detained Kumar.
The GST investigators also discovered his special method of operation, which involved fabricating numerous false identities of business owners and authorized signatories and using SIM cards that were based on phony Aadhar cards to gain complete control over filing GST registrations, returns, payments, cancellations, obtaining OTPs, and other related tasks whenever it was convenient for them.
Kumar was taken to Pune, where he was placed under 14 days of detention on Monday by a Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court after he appeared before a Jaipur court, which granted transit remand.
According to the sources, further inquiries are being conducted to identify any more fictitious businesses that could have been set up for fraud, as well as to determine the participation of other associates or con artists in this scheme, map out the ultimate beneficiaries, and retrieve the money that was defrauded.
