400 Panipat firms under lens in GST scam

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, June 8

As many as 400 big and small firms in Panipat have allegedly used fake bills amounting to Rs 800 crore to evade tax. During the investigation, it has been found that the firms in question have registered 19 bogus firms, including 17 in Panipat and two in Uttar Pradesh, to facilitate the tax evasion. The Superintendent of Police (SP) Sumit Kumar has constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to inquire the matter in detail.

The CIA-2 unit on Tuesday arrested three persons — Rajesh Mittal, Inder Pratap Singh and Manish Kumar — for their alleged involvement in the bogus billing scam. The police also arrested their aide and lawyer, Satnarayan Rohilla. Along with the State Excise and Taxation Department officials, the police are interrogating the accused.

During the investigation, the accused reportedly admitted to have been involved in the tax evasion scam since 2017. They also revealed that 19 bogus firms have been registered on the GST portal of which 17 are shown in Panipat and two in Lucknow.

“No industry or firm was found on the address shown by owners of firms during verification. We have recovered 63 files from Rohilla’s office and the number of bogus firms can rise,” said SP Sumit Kumar, adding that the SIT, led by Panipat DSP Bijender Singh, has been constituted to investigate the matter thoroughly.

Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Sales) and Deputy Commissioner, State Tax (GST), Raja Ram Nain said the department’s teams are scrutinising the files to calculate the total tax evasion by the accused. He added that the accused reportedly issued bogus bills of around Rs 800 crore and evaded tax of around Rs 60-70 crore of which Rs 20 crore is through bogus firms, he said.

The department would soon summon all those businessmen who had used these bogus bills, Nain said.

Major case after January

• In January too, the central GST teams and the state Excise and Taxation Department unearthed Rs 450-cr bogus billing scam and Rs 470-cr tax evasion, respectively 
• The Excise and Taxation Department had lodged 26 criminal cases in the two scams. Superintendent of Police Sumit Kumar said 65 cases were registered across the state