NEW DELHI: The government crackdown on those involved in
GST frauds has resulted in 215 arrests so far, which includes professionals such as chartered accountants (CAs) and a company secretary.
Some 17 arrests have been made in the last two days itself. Data consolidated by the finance ministry showed that the GST intelligence authorities have also booked around 2,200 cases and have unearthed more than 6,600 fake entities based on their identification number.
Authorities have also recovered more than Rs 700 crore from these fraudsters, sources said. While the government had launched a data-based drive to identify wrong-doers, who were inflating tax credits using fake invoices, it had suspended the campaign, only to resume it two months ago.
As part of the offensive, the government has widened the net to also include I-T scrutiny and action against the alleged perpetrators of the scam.
Sources said that those arrested not only include the fake-entity operators but also the end-beneficiaries, who are accused of conniving with the alleged fraudsters, many of whom were running the operations of fake invoices on a commission basis.
Out of the 215 arrests so far, 71 have been described as masterminds, 81 are proprietors of entities, there are over 36 directors, MDs and CEOs of companies and 15 partners of firms.
“Use of data analytics, datasharing and AI has enabled the GST ecosystem and intelligence authorities to identify layerby-layer activities of these fake entities and pinpoint the fraudsters with precise input,” said a tax official. The largest number of arrests, 23, have been made in the Mumbai zone.
Source:-timesofindia.indiatimes.com