Bhubaneswar: The state GST Enforcement authorities have busted a major inter- and intra-state GST fraud racket that defrauded taxes to the tune of `212 crore. The kingpin of the racket has also been arrested by the state Commercial Tax & GST Commissionerate from Rourkela, Wednesday.
The accused were identified as Amit Beriwal, proprietor of GS Unitrade, and Subash Chandra Swain, proprietor of BB Associates – both from Rourkela. The two fraudulently availed bogus input tax credit worth `89 crore and passed input tax credit to the tune of `123 crore through fake invoices.
Speaking on the issue at a press meet in Cuttack Thursday, GST Commissioner Sushil Kumar Lohani revealed that the sleuths busted the scam after intensive analysis of data available on GSTIN and NIC portals, interrogation of different registrants and information collected from banks. The investigation started in November with physical inspection of and searches at 27 business establishments between November 25 and 26, 2019 to unearth non-functional registered firms and persons under the GST Act in the state.
The accused along with other stakeholders opened 28 dummy firms registered in the name of poor persons, including daily wage labourers, private tutors, unemployed youths and housewives to hoodwink the authorities. The accused duo fetched identity documents of these persons and opened bank accounts in their names on the pretext of proving them jobs.
