MUMBAI: A day after the Directorate of Goods and Services Tax intelligence (DGGSTI) arrested two persons for allegedly duping the exchequer by issuing fake GST invoices, the suspected fraud is expected to go up to Rs 300 crore.
On Saturday, two persons were arrested for allegedly duping the exchequer of Rs 127 crore by issuing fake GST invoices and not paying service tax.
Amit Upadhyay (40) and Asad Anwar Sayed (42) were sent to judicial custody for 15 days by a local court, a GST official said.
However, the DGGSTI fears that the suspected scam will be bigger than it seems. “We have decided to pursue the case as this looks like tip of the iceberg. The scam could be around Rs 300 crore. The fraudulent companies dodged service tax and GST based on forged invoices of as many as
10 services, related to outsourcing and information technology, which were never provided,” the
official said.
The two have been booked under sections 89 and 69 of the CGST Act, 2017. They have been charged with offences under section 132 (1) — supply of goods or service without issue of invoices, issue invoice without the supply of goods, availing of input tax credit using bogus invoice, collection of tax but failure to pay the government beyond a period of three months from the date on which such payment becomes due.
This is a first of its kind case that was detected. The vigilance officers are now more alert about GST evasion and observing the transactions minutely.
