Sales Tax Officer Booked in Fake GST Scam:

Sales Tax Officer Booked in Fake GST Scam A sales tax officer was booked by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, for his involvement in approving fraudulent GST refunds totalling Rs. 4.69 crore to a firm without proper verification. The scam was uncovered during an internal investigation by the state GST department. The accused, Gajanan Lad, 59, a sales tax officer in the state GST department in Mazgaon, was booked along with the company Intercrib Market (APC) Pvt. Ltd., for clearing fake returns by the Sales Officer. As per the ACB officials, when Lad was posted in Ghatkopar, he worked with the company to help it with a fake GST refund. The company is also accused of using fake rent agreements to get a GST number for the firm. The company applied for a refund of Rs. 4.69 crore; however, in reality, it did not pay any GST to the government. Gajanan Lad intentionally did not check these applications and approved the claims. Despite the government portal flagging the claims as suspicious, Lad cleared it. A case was registered under sections 109 (abetment), 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security) 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the Indian Penal Code and under section 7 (offences related to public servants) and 13 (criminal misconduct by public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The ACB officer stated that the same case took place in March 2024, when a sales tax officer was accused of clearing 39 bogus proposals worth Rs. 175.93 crore.