The Delhi government has uncovered tax fraud of over ₹260 crore by more than 8,700 sales tax and value added tax (VAT) payers in the past five years, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday.
At a press conference here, Mr. Sisodia said the Trade and Taxes Department had found that 8,758 dealers had committed fraud in payment of ₹262 crore in 13 banks through online central sales tax (CST) and VAT payments from September 30, 2013 till September 26, 2018. He added that the Department had lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
Trade and Taxes Commissioner H. Rajesh Prasad said the alleged fraud was noticed when the Department verified the payments after its system branch found that some payments made by banking channels had not actually made it to the government exchequer. When the Department followed up with the banks, it was confirmed that these payments had not actually been transferred to the government exchequer.
“We had some indication about three months ago that a serious tax fraud was happening. About two or three days ago, we were able to get more information. These dealers had created fictitious IDs in our system as well as in the banks,” said Mr. Sisodia.
Of the 27 banks that the government deals with, irregularities were found in 13 of them so far, Mr. Sisodia said. He added that the amount of the fraud as well as the duration that it had been going on for could increase once the police investigates it.
An official with the EOW said it had received a complaint from the Department that some businesses had used fictitious documents and non-existent bank accounts.
“Preliminary amount involved is ₹9.97 crore and the complaint is being examined at EOW,” the official said.
