Bihar: 33 fake firms unearthed, over Rs 80 crore tax theft detected

PATNA: The investigating officers of the commercial taxes department (CTD) have unearthed over Rs80.90 crore of tax theft done by 33 fake firms operating in over half a dozen districts in the state, CTD commissioner cum secretary Pratima Kumari said on Wednesday. The turnover of the fake firms concerned was over Rs1,279.48 crore.
Of the 33 firms whose activities and documents the investigating teams inquired into at their declared addresses, 13 belonged to Patna district, 10 to Saran, four to the Magadh region districts, three to Darbhanga, two to Purnia and one to Bhagalpur. The investigating teams fanned out on August 3 at 33 locations to carry out raids.
The firms did business and trade in iron and steel, coal, laptops, battery, aluminium and copper scrap, bitumen, multi-recharge operations, among other items.
Overall, as many as 24 firms were found to be non-existent at their declared addresses for business. Prima facie, they were indulging in tax theft and bill trading using fake firms also. Their transaction was worth Rs379.48 crore and did tax evasion worth Rs54.80 crore, besides violating the provisions of goods and services tax (GST).
While three other firms were existent at their addresses, but were found to be involved in bill trading. They did trade in coal and the sales of laptops. Action would be taken against them after completion of the investigation.
A Darbhanga-based computer trader has shown turnover in several crores through the sales and purchase of laptops and did tax evasion through fake transportation. The benefit of input tax credit was given to traders outside the state. As much as Rs 30 lakh worth of goods had been seized.
A firm registered at Aurangabad was doing trading from Dehri and did tax evasion worth Rs16 crore by operating several other firms.
Of the three registered firms at Patna and Bhagalpur, which were multi recharge operators, one was non-existent and had a turnover of more than Rs900 crore in three years. The recharge vouchers worth several crores were purchased from retail trade outside the state, but the recharge was done through the online platform. The modus operandi of the firms in question is being still probed.