Maharashtra GST Officials Arrest, Two For Tax Fraud

Maharashtra GST officials arrested two people for causing loss of revenue to the state exchequer. Mayank Singh, 26, and Chandan Agarwal, 42, were arrested after it was unearthed that they created a company using fraudulent documents and used it as a vehicle to pass input tax credit without doing any business activity at all, as per an official statement.

Investigations revealed that bank accounts were used to pass on the input tax credit, while the proceeds of the crime were handled by Kolkata-based firms. "These firms have filed returns under GST with nil turnover. Bank accounts used by these three firms revealed transactions of debit and credit entries worth Rs 3,700 crore," the statement said.

This includes transfers from more than 850 suspected non-genuine parties amounting to Rs 940 crore, it said, adding that 99 of the entities have already been booked and actions against them are ongoing at different offices. The operation was carried out by a team led by Jayant Patil, joint commissioner of Raigad Division.The two accused were produced before a local court which remanded them to judicial custody till December 23.

(PTI)