5 firms booked, 3 sent to judicial custody for Rs 22-crore GST fraud.

Hyderabad: Five firms were booked and three honchos of these entities have been arrested for generating fake invoices and availing Rs 22.64 crore ineligible tax credit. 

Based on specific information received from Kolkata and further intelligence gathered in the city, GST  officers registered cases against five firms — Hindustan AAC Products, Aitri Engineers & Contractors Ltd, Sri Krishna Castings, Shree Metals and Aavya Enterprises located in Jeedimetla and Balanagar. 

They also arrested Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Vamsi Krishna and Amit Agarwal. Saneep had created fake invoices and pocketed commision. He also floated a company in the name of his relatives, while Amit was the receiver of fake invoices, sources said. 

“The companies have been indulging in procuring and supplying fake GST invoices without actual supply of goods mentioned in the invoices such as mild steel scrap, copper scrap and aluminium scrap. In this method, they have been passing on fraudulent input tax credit (ITC) since July 2017,” GST principal commissioner, Medchal, M Srinivas said. Central GST Commissionerate, Medchal, officials also found out that some fraudsters were utilising ITCs obtained through illegal means to offset their GST liability on their manufactured goods, thereby evading tax payable to the government. The value of goods involved in the entire investigation was approximately Rs 131 crore and ineligible ITC availed by the accused was Rs 22.64 crore, the principal commissioner said. 

During searches conducted at different locations on May 15 and May 17, the GST officials seized unaccounted cash of Rs 20 lakh, $4,150 and several incriminating documents. The GST officials shared details of the seized cash with income tax department . 

Also, initial investigation revealed that the details of vehicles mentioned by the culprits in the e-Way bills, indicating that huge volume of goods were carried in them, were fictitious. So far, three key persons, holding senior managerial posts of the firms have been arrested. They were later sent to judicial custody for 14 days.