GST evasion gang busted by creating fake companies in Uttarakhand

The GST officials of Uttarakhand have busted a gang of traders evading tax worth crores of rupees by running fake companies to make illegal trade of timber and its products appear legal in the state. Officials gave this information on Sunday. Officials said that the Uttarakhand Goods and Services Tax (GST) department conducted a search and seizure operation named ‘Operation D Day – Rising Woods’ in Jaspur area of ​​Udham Singh Nagar district. Udham Singh Nagar is one of the biggest timber markets and from here timber and its products are exported across the country.

Investigators suspect that people from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Bihar and Rajasthan may also be involved in this case. Twenty-seven teams comprising more than 300 tax and forensic officers and financial technology experts were formed for the GST department’s search operation. As part of the campaign, 27 commercial establishments and residences of transporters, lawyers and chartered accountants were raided. Investigators had been tracking this illegal network for almost nine months. They found several companies in the name of one person to evade tax.

They believe that the accused had planned to commit tax fraud since the implementation of GST in 2017. He gave details of shell companies to legitimize the purchase of raw material illegally. Investigators also suspect the involvement of bank officials in the fraud, who allegedly helped the accused by making irregularities in the KYC process. 25 to 30 people have been involved in this network. Joint Commissioner of Special Bureau of Investigation Ranveer Singh told PTI, “The modus operandi of the accused was such that earlier they used to create shell companies which existed only on paper. These timber trading companies were procuring raw material from illegal markets and obtained purchase orders and bills from them, showing these fake firms as their genuine suppliers. They paid input tax credit to these bogus firms causing huge loss to the government.”

According to Singh, preliminary investigation has revealed that an entire racket is involved in creating fake firms using documents of other people and causing huge loss to the revenue. He told that this gang was paying fake tax by preparing fake bills without supplying goods to the products of Uttar Pradesh in Bijnor, Rampur, Moradabad, Saharanpur and Yamunanagar of Haryana. Prima facie, this fraud is estimated to have caused tax evasion of about Rs 18 crore.

Disclaimer:IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.