Sonipat resident held for issuing bogus GST invoices of over Rs 268 crore

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Gurugram Zonal Unit (GZU) has arrested Nitin Jain, a resident of Sonipat, for issuing "bogus invoices" amounting to over Rs 268 crore.

Jain was arrested on Wednesday and produced before a Gurugram Court which sent him to 14-day judicial custody.

A Finance Ministry release on Thursday said that probe revealed that Jain had issued bogus invoices through his firm Shiv Trade Incorporation and another firm Om Trade Inexim of various goods such as ferrous and non-ferrous scrap, ingots, nickel cathode amounting to about Rs 268 crores. The firm was opened in the name of a dummy person.

It said that Jain fraudulently passed Input Tax Credit (ITC) amounting to about Rs 41.6 crores through bogus invoices.

This input tax credit was further availed by various entities to offset their GST liability and the fraudulent ITC was passed to buyers who availed it to "discharge their GST liability against their outward supplies with an ulterior motive to defraud the government exchequer".

The release said Jain also admitted of having issued bogus invoices in lieu of certain fixed commission.

It said that Jain has committed offences under provisions of Central Goods and Services Tax Act (CGST), 2017 which are cognizable and non-bailable. Further investigation is being done in the matter.