Visakhapatnam: Officials of the commercial taxes department have unearthed a massive racket involving issuance of fake waybills to dealers to evade payment of commercial taxes on goods being transported across the state.
Though the racket has been continuing unhindered for the past five years, it came to light when one of the traders approached the officials with a clue. The officials unable to spell out the quantum of misuse of the waybills suspected that goods worth crores of rupees were transported without any taxes being paid.
Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, deputy commissioner of commercial taxes department, T. Siva Sankara Rao said three manual waybill books had been stolen by a contingent employee of the department at Gajuwaka Circle R. Narayana Rao and he allegedly sold it to some traders, who indulged in illegal transportation of goods. The officer said that Narayana Rao had allegedly stolen 67 waybill books (each book contains 50 sheets) over a period of five years and sold it to some unscrupulous elements for a high price and the traders transported goods including scrap, iron-sheets and re-rolling of steel by evading taxes on goods with the fake waybills as there is no check points within the state. Narayana Rao was assisted by G. Koteswara Rao of Vizianagaram area in selling waybills to various dealers across the state.
A genuine trader in the city found a fake waybill valued at '3.5 lakh from one of the traders and he approached the officials. Based on the clue, the CT officials led by Siva Sankara Rao unearthed the scam. However, the officer said that more details would be known once the police complete the investigation into the case.
Both Narayana Rao and Koteswara Rao were arrested following the complaint from CT officials. Narayana Rao had stolen 31 waybill books during the undivided Andhra agitation in 2013 when the entire staff was on strike. “Till date some of the traders in the city are using manual waybill books and our sincere appeal to all traders is to switch to e-waybills to prevent fraud,” the officers added.
