Meerut: In a major operation against firms which availed fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) under Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the sleuths of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Meerut Zonal Unit conducted searches at multiple locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Raipur, Varanasi and Moradabad unearthing a major scam of fake invoices without supply of goods by a group of people to defraud the government revenue.DGGI sources said that they did it by way of encashment of fraudulent ITC availed on fake invoices through IGST export refund route. Chartered accountant Gaurav Jindal, 27, has been arrested for allegedly running the racket. He was sent to Meerut jail for the offence on Tuesday.Elaborating on the matter, senior intelligence officer Devender Kumar said, “These offenders created multiple companies/firms using either their own PAN card and voter id; or in the name of family members and employees of their firm solely for the purpose of fake billing without supply of goods. One such exporting firm involved in the said racket is GJA Industries ltd, Delhi, which is being controlled and managed by Jindal. During interrogation he accepted his involvement in this case and was arrested on Monday.”During searches it was found that these firms issued fake invoices of more than Rs 210 crore in value thereby passing on and cashing on input tax credit of about Rs 50 crore illegally.“Interestingly these companies or firms are not engaged in normal business activities as they neither have any godowns for storage nor they receive or supply goods. They wrongly availed ITC without actual purchase of goods in their firms/companies and encashed the same by issuance of export invoices and claiming IGST refund thereon from customs,” said DGGI intelligence officer Aishwarya Atri.DGGI, Meerut Zonal Unit alone has detected more than 60 cases involving duty evasion of more than Rs 250 crore and recovered Rs 121 crore in the past one year.

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