The Maharashtra State Goods & Service Tax (SGST) Department on Thursday arrested a man operating three firms for having allegedly availed Input Tax Credit (ITC) of Rs 41.67 crore from suspected non-genuine taxpayers by means of fake bills worth Rs 231.49 crore.
The arrested person has been identified as BV Shah (48), operator of M/s Om Impex and two other firms.
According to the SGST officials, an investigation visit was conducted at the place of business of M/s. Om Impex. During preliminary investigation it was found that M/s Om Impex and two other firms namely M/s Brijeshwari Enterprises and M/s Chetna Metals LLP have availed ITC of Rs 41.67 crore from suspected non-genuine taxpayers by means of fake bills worth Rs 231.49 crore.
Following this, Shah was arrested and was produced before a Metropolitan Magistrate Court which remanded him to 14 days judicial custody. The operation was conducted under the guidance of Rahul Dwivedi (IAS), Joint Commissioner of State Tax.
With this, the State GST department has made 30 arrests in the current financial year of those allegedly involved in tax evasion. Given the comprehensive analytical tools and the inter-departmental coordination state GST has been deploying, this number is further going to increase thereby giving a strong signal to the fraudsters and strengthening its drive against such people, officials said.
