The Goods and Service Tax (GST) department has registered over 1,470 cases of tax evasion in the financial year 2018-19 and recovered around Rs 360 crore in Gujarat.
Talking to FE, a senior official in the state
GST department said that the authorities had also arrested 14 businessmen for tax evasion. The biggest case of evasion was registered at Gondal town in Rajkot district after the authorities unearthed a fake billing racket of nearly Rs 470 crore. In connection with the case, three persons were arrested, he said.
In another cases, the officials arrested five persons from Ahmedabad, two each from Unjha in north Guajrat and Bhavnagar in Saurashtra region as well as one person each from Vadodara and Deesa, respectively.
About the modus operandi of traders who issued fake billing, the official said that traders bought fake bills which enable them to claim input tax credit on the supply which in reality never happened.
Input tax credit is an option in the GST which allows the taxpayers to claim credit for the taxes paid on inputs, he added. Of these 14 accused, chargesheets were filed against nine persons and legal proceedings are on against the remaining five persons. In order to curb GST theft, mobile squads have been formed by the state GST department.
Source: financialexpress.com