Mumbai: CGST Palghar Commissionerate has arrested an accountant for issuing bogus bills of more than Rs 1000 crore and committing GST input tax credit (ITC) fraud of Rs 181 crore, said the Finance Ministry in a statement on Wednesday.

The officers of Palghar Commissionerate received specific inputs from data mining and data analysis that Nithilan Enterprises is suspected to be engaged in availing and passing on of fake ITC by issuing fake invoices without actual receipt or supply of goods or services.

Based on this, they conducted thorough investigations and noticed that a 27 years old man, who has studied till 12th standard and now works as a freelancer accountant-cum-GST consultant, cheated and stole the identity of one of his clients for committing such GST frauds for monetary gains.

Confrontation with material evidence made the accountant confess his offence of issuing bogus bills of more than Rs 1000 crore and availing and passing of fake ITC of Rs 181 crore without movement of any goods. His confession and evidence collected during the investigation led to his arrest by the CGST officers on January 25 under Section 69 of the CGST Act 2017 for violations which are punishable under Section 132 of CGST Act 2017.

The Ministry said that the accused was produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai on the same day. The court has remanded him to 14 days judicial custody. If convicted, the person may face jail up to five years with fine.

It is suspected that he is a part of a bigger network which lures innocent people to obtain GST registrations and then steals their registration. This stolen identity is used for generation, availing and passing on of fake ITC, without actual supply or receipt of goods or services. All efforts are being made to identify and nab the kingpin and other members and beneficiaries of this network.

This case of detection of fake ITC racket is a part of crusade of anti-evasion drive launched by CGST, Mumbai Zone against the fraudsters and tax evaders who have been creating unhealthy competition with honest and compliant taxpayers and defrauding the government exchequer.

As a part of this drive, Palghar Commissionerate has detected tax evasion to the tune of Rs 460 crore, recovered Rs 12 crore and arrested two persons so far. The CGST Department is going to intensify this drive against the fraudsters and tax evaders in the coming days, said the Ministry. /BI/