GST officers arrest one person for creating fake firms, issuing bogus invoices

GST officers have arrested one person for creating about 90 fake firms for the purpose of issuing bogus invoices without supply of goods thereon, the finance ministry said on Friday.

The officers of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Headquarters, arrested one Anupam Singla, a resident of Sirsa, Haryana, on July 18 after searches conducted at his Delhi residence/offices threw up 110 debit/credit cards belonging to different persons, it said.

During the search operation, GST officers also found blank signed cheque books/ blank cheque books pertaining to 173 different bank accounts, blank bilty books belonging to various transporters, identity proofs of different persons, mobile SIM cards and other incriminating documents.

"The firms opened by Singla issued invoices worth Rs 7,672 crore, including the circularly traded value, with a GST component of Rs 660 crore.

"The said firms have passed on fraudulent ITC to some of the well established traders and cotton yarn spinners who have availed of the same to discharge their GST liability with an ulterior motive to defraud the government exchequer," the ministry said.

During the investigations conducted so far into the fake billing racket in the cotton industry, the DGGI Headquarters has recovered an amount of Rs 32.60 crore towards GST evasion, it added.