Man arrested for issuing fake invoices in Rajasthan

An entrepreneur was arrested here on Wednesday for issuing fake invoices without supplying goods and availing the Input Tax Credit (ITC), a DGGI official said.

The zonal unit of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) had initiated investigation in 2018 against Saurabh Chhajer (34) of Jain Enterprises and arrested him on Wednesday for evading tax through seven of his firms.

The firms were created before the GST was implemented. The total value involved in these fake invoices issued by these firms was Rs 174.33 crore, involving total ITC of Rs 33.05 crore, the official said.

He said the amount was detected on preliminary investigation and may increase later.

The official said that Chhajer was the mastermind behind this bogus billing and had issued invoices to total 479 firms, of which 393 are located in Rajasthan and 86 outside Rajasthan.

He issued bills mainly in lieu of cigarettes, biddis, pan masala, gutkha, cosmetics, cement, iron & steel, firms of marble, iron and rubber industries.

Investigation till date has revealed that he created the said firms for the sole purpose of fraudulently passing of ITC on the basis of fake invoices without actual supply of goods.

The DGGI official said that a total amount of Rs 36 lakh has been deposited by Chhajer till date and an amount of Rs 6.24 crore has been recovered from the buyers of such invoices.

Chhajer was arrested under sections of the CGST Act, the official said.