GST intelligence detects Rs 8 cr fraud in gold bullion market in Vizag

VISAKHAPATNAM: The city-based zonal unit of the director general of GST Intelligence busted a major fake input tax credit racket in the gold bullion market and arrested one person on Saturday. He has been remanded to judicial custody.

Joint director Mayank Sharma said here in a release that various dummy and non-operating firms were created with fictitious addresses in and around Guntur. They were identified and simultaneous searches were carried out at various places in Andhra Pradesh. These searches revealed that the racketeers have passed on fake credit of around Rs 8 crore to various bullion trading in the State. The kingpin, a 25-year-old from Guntur, was traced after sustained investigation and arrested.

The officials also attached gold and silver worth Rs 1.8 crore to protect the government revenue. Further investigation was on, the release said.

GST officials recently intensified their efforts to curb fake ITC rackets, which led to a lot of tax evasion. In November alone, seven cases were booked involving detection of 32 dummy and non-existing GST registrations. These detections involved fake transactions to the tune of Rs 400 crore, including duty evasion of Rs 28 crore. Two people have also been arrested in these cases.