Karnal contractor held for ₹133-cr GST fraud

A SEARCH WAS CONDUCTED FOLLOWING THE INPUTS ABOUT FICTITIOUS ITC PASSED ON BY BOGUS FIRMS

KARNAL: The anti- evasion branch of the Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST), Panchkula, has arrested a Karnal-based contractor for his involvement in GST scam worth crores.

As per the information the CGST sleuths conducted several raids in Karnal and arrested the accused for his involvement in GST fraud of around Rs 133 crore involving ITC of Rs 24.28 crore. The accused has been identified as Shashank Garg and owner of a construction company.

Rachana Singh, joint commissioner, CGST, Panchkula, said that the investigation was initiated against a Karnal- based assessee for taking credit on fake invoices without actual receipt of goods. Teams of officers of anti-evasion, CGST, Panchkula, carried out searches across multiple locations in Karnal on Friday and Saturday.

She said that the preliminary investigations reveal that the proprietor of the firm availing the bogus credit has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. She said that the search was conducted following the inputs about the fictitious, fake and fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) passed on by bogus or fake firms in relation to trading of bitumen. She said that the officials have also recovered around Rs 3 crore from him and further investigations are in progress.

She said that further investigation in this case is in progress to unravel the network and multiple chains of fake invoices benefactors and the possibility of arrest of more people cannot be ruled out.

This is the second such arrest in past two weeks as the CGST officials had also arrested the mastermind behind Rs 105.36 crore GST fraud in Panipat on December 25.