Rs 115-crore fake GST invoice racket busted; firm owner held

Nagpur,Feb 13 ()The Nagpur zonal unit ofDirectorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI)has busted afake invoice racket of over Rs 115 crore and arrested theproprietor of city firm on Thursday, an official said.

On the basis of specific information regardingissuance of fake invoices and availment offraudulent InputTax Credit (ITC), simultaneous searches were conducted byofficers of DGGI at the premises of a number of taxpayers inLudhiana and Nagpur on Wednesday, according to a press releaseissued by DGGI additional director Pradip Gurumurthy.

"These searches revealed that taxpayers based atLudhiana and Nagpur were non-existent and all the suppliesmade by them to M/S Raja Cement House, Satyam Nagar inNagpurwere merely on paper under fake invoices withoutcorresponding supplies of goods," the release said.

Preliminary investigations have revealed Raja CementHouse had cumulatively received and issued fake invoicesvalued at over Rs 115 crore and availed fraudulent ITC of Rs10.44 crore on these fake invoices, it said.

"On sustained interrogation,proprietor of Raja CementHouse Raja, Ashok Agrawal, admitted the fact of receiving andissuing fake invoices and availing fraudulent input tax crediton these fake invoices," the release said.

He was arrested on Thursday, it added. CLSRSY RSY