Mumbai: The Central Goods and Services Tax and Excise Commissioner of Navi Mumbai police has arrested four persons on Thursday for allegedly issuing fake invoices of Rs 1,000 crore to avail tax credits of Rs 441 crore. The four persons have been identified as businessman Uday Kantilal Desai, director of Reena Tiinaz Pvt Ltd along with his accomplices, Vinayak Mahadev Tawhare, proprietor, Sri Sai Trading; Shekhar Duraiswamy Mudaliyar of KM Trading and Krunal Madhusudan Desai of Tashee Enterprises.
Police sources said Desai had allegedly set up firms and issued invoices without actually supplying any goods. On the basis of a specific information, officials formed a team under the guidance of Kiran Verma, Commissioner of CGST, Navi Mumbai, and Joint Director Raghavendra Pal Singh. The team carried out search operations on eight premises of the accused on Tuesday.
After further investigations, it was revealed that all the invoices were issued in the name of three companies of Uday Desai’s former or current employees, they had in turn issued invoices to other companies without actual physical movement of any goods. Subsequently, it was revealed Desai controlled all these companies.
A CGST official requesting confidentiality said, “They would re-purchase their own goods from their own firms, without actually receiving the goods and took the illegal tax credit. The investigation is likely to cover many more aspects of their operations.”