Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar under CID Scanner for Rs.1,400 Crore GST Evasion

The Crime Investigation Department (CID), which has lodged investigations about financial irregularities in the commercial taxation department, is expected to examine department officials, including former chief secretary Somesh Kumar.

Previously, the Hyderabad Crime Central Station (CCS) has registered complaints related to an alleged Rs.1,400 crore GST fraud. The case was eventually moved to the CID.

The CID has re-registered cases and plans to question commercial tax department employees.

The GST scam involved Big Leap Technologies and Solutions, which registered as a personnel supplier. It granted an input tax credit of Rs.25.51 crore without actually paying any taxes to the government.

“According to instructions from the then-special chief secretary Somesh Kumar, they provided IIT-Hyderabad with a format for capturing all four discrepancies: IGST, CGST, SGST, and cess, and they were unaware of why IGST and cess notices were not generated. After gathering information in the preliminary investigation, the CID will question the personnel. Somesh Kumar is one of the defendants”, according to sources.

It was revealed that the project investigator, Prof. Sobhan Babu, received orders through a WhatsApp group called “Special Initiatives,” which included Somesh Kumar, S.V. Kasi Visweswara Rao, assistant commissioner (ST), and A. Siva Rama Prasad, deputy commissioner and professor Sobhan Babu.

IIT-Hyderabad provides software development services to the commercial tax department, and its purpose is to do analytics and generate discrepancies based on returns filed by Telangana taxpayers.

However, official ineptitude has resulted in a loss of Rs. 1,400 crore in tax evasion.