Sales tax officer booked for fraud GST refund of 4cr+

Mumbai: In yet another case of a GST refund scam, the state sales tax department has registered an offence of corruption against its officer, Gajanan Laad, for allegedly facilitating a fraudulent GST refund of Rs 4.69 crore to a non-existent company by misusing his official position.
Last year, the sales tax department had unearthed a Rs 175 crore GST refund scam involving its officer, Amit Lalge, following which Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and, later, Enforcement Directorate had registered an offence of money laundering.
On Wednesday, On the complaints of the sales tax department, ACB registered a fresh case against sales tax officer, Gajanan Laad who was serving as a state tax officer in the Ghatkopar division. He has been accused of approving tax refund to M/s Interkib Market (OPC) Pvt Ltd, a company that allegedly obtained GST registration using forged documents.
Officials said that despite the company not paying any taxes, a refund application was submitted and approved without proper verification. Laad has been accused of colluding with the company, bypassing established GST refund procedure, and fabricating reports to facilitate the refund, resulting in financial loss to the govt.ACB booked Laad under IPC for cheating, forgery and under Prevention of Corruption Act.
Assistant commissioner of police of Anti-Corruption Bureau, Manisha Zende, said that sales tax official Laad had "bluntly abused his official position. Though he was not authorised to clear a return file exceeding Rs 5 lakh, he disregarded the protocol," Zende said.
A senior police official said that Laad'smodus operandi is similar to that of Amit Lalge, who fraudulently submitted export documents of 16 companies to claim a GST refund of Rs 175 crore.