New Delhi: In a first in the national capital, the Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) department on Tuesday arrested a father-son duo in a case of fraudulent issuance of input tax credit invoices involving evasion of approximately '28 crore relating to copper industry. It is the first case of arrest in the city under the new tax regime that came into force on July 1, 2017.
The accused have been identified as Ashok Kumar Jain (54) and Ankit Jain (26). They have been arrested after being booked under Section 132 (1) (b) (c) read with 69 (1) of the GST Act.
According to the information, the duo businessmen — owners of M/s AAR having office in Dilshad Garden — had availed Rs 28.17 crore by purchasing invoices from three fake firms and made a cash payment of Rs 1,04,649 for the period, July 2017 to March 2018.
The Central Tax, GST, Delhi east commissionerate arrested the accused on Tuesday. Searches were also conducted at several places during which various incriminating documents and evidence were found.
Investigation that followed revealed involvement of the father and son. CMM Deepak Sehrawat of Patiala House Courts remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days.
As per Section 132 of CGST ACT, issuance of an invoice or bill without supply of goods and wrongful availment or utilisation of input tax credit is a cognisable and non-bailable offence if the amount involved is over Rs 5 crore.
Further investigations are on and the quantum of evasion is likely to go up. Officers are not ruling out the possibility of existence of several other fake firms as the investigation moves ahead.
The first arrests under the new indirect taxation regime was in Mumbai in March 2018 where directors of two companies were arrested by the Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities for alleged tax evasion to the tune of over '7 crore.
CGST, Mumbai Central Commissionerate, arrested Sanjiv Pravin Mehta, director of Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt Ltd, and Vinaykumar D. Arya, director of V.N. Industries, for availing of “ineligible credit” of Rs 5.20 crore and Rs 2.03 crore in separate cases.
