4 people arrested in 3 different cases of ITC fraud of RS 178 crore

GST officers have arrested four persons in three different fake invoicing cases involving total input tax credit (ITC) fraud of Rs 178 crore, the Finance Ministry said on Monday.

"The officers of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Commissionerate, Delhi North, have unearthed a network of fictitious firms to generate goods-less invoices and pass on fake ITC to multiple beneficiaries. In all, four individuals were arrested in three different cases. The total ITC involved in the three cases is Rs 178 crore," the Ministry said in a statement.

In one case, four non-existent firms were created by the main perpetrators to pass on ITC of Rs 54 crore, primarily to 14 other firms. These firms were not only involved in issuing fake invoices on commission basis but also used such invoices for claiming IGST refund on export of goods.

"The main operators behind all these firms, Vikas Goyal and Gopal Aggarwal have confessed to their involvement in running this web of fake firms and were arrested on February 12," the Ministry added.

In the second case, investigations revealed that one Mohinder Kumar received fraudulent GST ITC of Rs 111 crore in his two firms- VMW Enterprises and Shree Bahadur Steel Company - from several bogus firms and passed on this credit to several other firms without actual supply of goods. Kumar was placed under arrest on February 13, it added.

In another similar case, one Surender Kumar Jain, Director of VDR Colors and Chemicals Pvt Ltd & AV Metals Marketing Pvt Ltd and proprietor of Surender Kumar Jain was found involved in availing ineligible ITC of Rs 13 crore on the basis of invoices issued by non-existent firms. Jain was also arrested on February 13, the Ministry said. It further said since the inception of GST, Central Tax, Delhi Zone, has made 25 arrests in various cases involving GST evasion amounting to more than Rs 3,969.65 crore.

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