Accountant arrested in Mumbai for issuing bogus bills of over Rs 1,000 crore

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The officers of Palghar Commissionerate of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Mumbai zone arrested an accountant for issuing bogus bills of more than Rs 1,000 crores and committing GST Input Tax Credit (ITC) fraud of Rs 181 crores, said CGST Palghar Commissionarate.

"Based on specific inputs received from data mining and data analysis that one entity M/s Nithilan Enterprises is suspected to be engaged in availing and passing on of fake Input Tax Credit by issuing fake invoices without actual receipt or supply of goods or services, the officers of Palghar Commissionerate conducted through Investigations," the official statement reads.

The Commissionarate said that a 27-year-old man, who works as a freelancer accountant cum GST consultant, cheated and stole the identity of one of his clients for committing GST fraud for monetary gains. "The confrontation of material evidence to the accountant made him confess his offence of issuing bogus bills of more than Rs 1,000 crores and availment and passing of fake ITC of Rs 181 crores without movement of any goods," it said.

His confession and evidence collected during the investigation led to his arrest by the CGST officers on January 25, 2022, under Section 69 of the CGST Act 2017 for violations that are punishable under Section 132 of CGST Act 2017. The accused was produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai on 25 January 2021 and was remanded to 14 days' judicial custody. "If convicted, the person may face jail up to five years with fine," it added. It is suspected that he is a part of the bigger network which lures innocent people to obtain GST registrations and then steals this registration.

This stolen identity is used for the 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. The Commissionarate further said that this case of detection of fake ITC racket is a part of the 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, Palghar Commissionerate has detected tax evasion 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, it added.

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