Personnel of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Visakhapatnam, on Wednesday arrested a 45-year-old managing director of a company.
The company, which is engaged in infrastructure projects and government contracts, has allegedly received and issued fake invoices to the tune of ₹450 crore. “This is one of the biggest GST frauds detected in recent times by the DGGI,” said an official.
Documents seized
Simultaneous searches were conducted in various parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, and incriminating documents recovered, the official added.
On interrogation, the accused confessed that the company received and raised fake invoices without actually supplying services, the official said.
Besides artificially boosting the turnover of the company, the input tax credit (ITC) so availed on the basis of fake invoices was also passed on for further utilisation by other major infrastructure companies. This modus operandi was followed using multiple GST registrations, he added.
Preliminary quantification revealed that from September 2018 to August 2019, almost ₹450 crore worth fake invoices had been generated involving ineligible ITC worth ₹67 crore. The accused was arrested under the provisions of the GST laws and remanded in judicial custody till October 30.
“Since inception of the GST regime, the Visakhapatnam unit of the DGGI has detected fake invoices worth ₹50 crore and realised ₹40 crore of it,” the official said.
