CGST officials bust network of 23 firms for claiming input tax credit of Rs 91 cr

New Delhi, July 11: Based upon specific intelligence, the officers of the Anti Evasion branch of Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) Commissionerate, Delhi (West) have unearthed a case of availment/utilization and passing on of inadmissible input tax credit (ITC) through goods less invoices of Rs 91 crore (approx). The modus operandi involved floating of multiple firms with the intent to avail/utilize & passing on of inadmissible credit. The firms involved in this network are M/s Girdhar Enterprises, M/s Arun Sales, M/s Akshay Traders, M/s Shree Padmavati Enterprises and 19 others. These 23 firms were floated in order to generate goods-less invoices with an intent to pass on fraudulent ITC without paying actual GST to the government. Late Dinesh Gupta, Shubham Gupta, Vinod Jain and Yogesh Goel were associated in the said business of generating/selling fake invoices. These entities are dealing in various commodities and involved in generation of goods-less invoices worth Rs 551 crore and passing inadmissible ITC amounting to Rs 91 crore (approx). All the three accused tendered their voluntary statement admitting their guilt. Therefore, Shubham Gupta, Vinod Jain and Yogesh Goel knowingly committed offences under Section 132(1)(b) and 132(1)(c) of the CGST Act, 2017 which are cognizable and non-bailable offences as per the provisions of Section 132(5) and are punishable under clause (i) of the sub section (1) of Section 132 of the Act ibid. Accordingly, they were arrested under Section 132 of the CGST Act on 10.07.2021 and remanded to judicial custody by the duty Metropolitan Magistrate for 14 days. Further Investigations are in progress. Delhi Zone has been making sustained efforts to check evasion of GST, leading to detection of Rs 91.256 crore in the present FY and three persons have been arrested in these matters.