CGST Commissionerate Arrests Proprietor for Fake GST ITC of Rs. 70 Crore

Following a tip from the CGST Mumbai zone's Central Intelligence Unit (CIU), a team from the CGST Commissionerate Raigad's Anti-Evasion Wing launched an investigation, which revealed that M/s Zaid Enterprises had obtained fake ITC on the basis of bogus invoices issued by more than ten non-existing firms and then passed this fake ITC to other firms. The firm's proprietor was not functioning from the primary place of business listed on the GST system, but rather from a mobile office. He was tracked down and captured near a petrol station in Navi Mumbai after a 15-kilometer chase. The accused was detained on 04.03.2022 under Section 69 of the Central Goods and Services Act, 2017 for committing offences under Section 132 of the said Act and was produced before the Judicial Magistrate, Panvel, where he was sentenced to 14 days in judicial custody. Aside from the foregoing, officers had been keeping an eye on the number of such phoney entities that had been mushrooming and operating out of a small region in Taloja, Navi Mumbai, based on previous trend research and data analytics tools. They were registering for GST using forged/stolen identities or solely for the aim of producing, obtaining, using, and passing on false ITC. These cases are part of a specific Anti-Evasion drive initiated by the CGST, Mumbai Zone, targeting fraudsters and tax evaders who are putting complying taxpayers at a disadvantage and robbing the government. In the financial year 2021-22, the CGST Raigad Commissionerate discovered tax evasion worth over Rs. 700 crore, recovered Rs. 405 crore, and arrested nine people. To identify tax evaders, the CGST department is doing significant data mining utilizing data analytics and network analysis tools, and the agency plans to further up its efforts against fraudsters and tax evaders in the next days and months.