CGST raids on bicycle firms cause panic in Ludhiana

LUDHIANA: Fear gripped bicycle and parts manufacturers and traders of Ludhiana on Friday when news of raids by teams of preventive wing of Central GST (CGST) department on several companies spread. So much of panic was witnessed amongst some of the businessmen that they even closed their factories after half day’s shift on Friday.
According to information available with TOI, about six bicycle and parts manufacturing firms, two of which are located in Dhandari Kalan were searched by the CGST teams which after splitting in different groups started the action simultaneously in the afternoon.However till the filing of this report there was no clarity from the department on why the action was taken but according to sources Friday's development is the fallout of the recent action by the department in which 11 Ludhiana firms were raided few days back which were evading tax by engaging in under invoicing.
However sources in the industry have disclosed to TOI that during search at two companies, department officials did not find anything incriminating which points towards GST evasion but the owners of firms have been instructed to submit their sale , purchase records and other documents related to accounts.
Notably on August 7th the CGST department had conducted raids on 16 premises of 11 bicycle traders. This action had then resulted in detection of tax liabilities to the tunes of Rs. 1 crore and those businessmen who were found involved in this racket were underpaying GST by indulging into under invoicing of their products.