Jaipur intel unit unearths GST evasion of Rs 58 crore

JAIPUR: The regional unit of Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax intelligence (DGGI) has unearthed tax evasion of Rs 58 crore through 87 companies who traded only bills without any underlying goods.
After preliminary investigation, three persons were arrested under section 132 (1) of CGST Act and the accused were sent to Jail till June 2 after being produced before a court on Monday.According to DGGI, a total of 17 teams raided 21 business and residential premises in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan from where Jaipur-based tax consultant Pankaj Khandelwal and two Uttar Pradesh based businessmen Sandeep Kumar Agarwal and Shriram Kumar Singh were arrested.
Incriminating documents including banks records, cheque books, firm documents, foreign and Indian currency notes, mobile calls records were also seized.
“Rs 316 crore worth transactions were found with tax evasion of Rs 58 crore in preliminary investigation. The accused generated bogus invoices through companies that existed on papers for availing input tax credit. The goods were not issued by the firms,” additional director general, DGGI Jaipur, Rajendra Kumar said on Monday.
It is one of the major breakthroughs of DGGI Jaipur units since its establishment in Rajasthan.
He said that mastermind Sandeep Kumar Agarwal and Shriram Kumar Singh did transactions through M/s Radhika Enterprises and Honey Enterprises. Further, transactions were done through 87 firms that existed only on papers.
Tax consultant Khandelwal helped in firm registration through fake IDs and documents.
The tax evaders had created firms in the name of their employees, neighbours and even people who died years ago, he added.
ADG Kumar said that more arrests are likely in the case and it is yet to be examined whether the accused evaded VAT and Service Tax prior to GST implementation.