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Officials of the Gujarat State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) unearthed Input Tax Credit (ITC) fraud worth Rs 83.73 crore availed by 61 fake firms which passed on such credit to other firms in Surat.
Under the drive, the SGST enforcement wing officials tracked suspicious shell firms availing ITC benefits fraudulently with the help of fake documents and later passed on the ITC to other firms for monetary gain. In the last two days, verifications were carried out on 75 such suspicious firms with physical checking, and officials found that 61 of the firms did not exist at the addresses mentioned in their documents. The remaining 14 firms were issued notices to contact the GST office and pay the penalty amount with interest.
On further probe, the officials found that the 61 firms had submitted documents of sales and purchase of goods to the tune of Rs 2,768.31 crore and availed ITC of Rs 83.73 crore in the last couple of years. The addresses of these firms mentioned on the documents are located in Mahidharpura, Salabatpura, Nanpura, Chauta Bazaar and these companies include diamond firms, food grain businesses, furniture, textile firms, steel cast, etc. The availed ITC of Rs 83.73 crore was passed on to different firms in Surat city.
Officials have also started issuing notices to the beneficiary firms. The statements of persons involved in them will be recorded and a penalty amount, along with interest, will be collected.
Sources in the GST department said these suspicious firms were found to have used important personal documents of autorickshaw’s drivers, paan shop owners, labourers, etc, to get the GST numbers. The officials are putting in all possible efforts to identify all the people behind the illegal activity.
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