Nipjyoti Kalita
Naharlagun, July 05: The Bureau of Investigation of Economic Offences (BIEO) has apprehended one of the masterminds involved in a Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud case. Atish Kumar Tiwari, a 21-year-old individual from Saidpura village in Siwan district, Bihar, was arrested on Tuesday by the BIEO in connection with a case registered at their police station.
Tiwari, who operated a business establishment in Arunachal Pradesh, was allegedly engaged in the sale of counterfeit invoices to various business establishments in the region. He collaborated with another trader named Vivek Gupta in orchestrating this fraudulent scheme. The duo created two fictitious entities, M/s Amit Traders and M/s Deepak Enterprises, with no actual existence, solely for the purpose of claiming input tax credit (ITC) and deriving monetary benefits.
Input tax credit allows businesses to reduce their tax liability by claiming a credit based on the amount of GST paid on their purchases. In this case, Tiwari and Gupta manipulated the system by generating fake invoices in the name of the non-existent firms, without actually moving any goods, and subsequently claimed input tax credit.
The investigations were initiated based on complaints filed by assistant commissioners of state tax in Guwahati. Subsequently, a special investigation team was formed to track down the main suspects. The team visited multiple business premises in various locations across Arunachal Pradesh, including Itanagar, Naharlagun, Ziro, and Doimukh.
The Economic Intelligence Unit, Assam, led the inquiry, focusing on M/s Amit Traders and their alleged purchase of goods from M/s Shree Ram Enterprise of Arunachal Pradesh. The investigation uncovered that Shree Ram Enterprise had fraudulently claimed input tax credit of Rs 116 crore, out of which Rs 5.91 crore was passed on to M/s Amit Traders.
Further examination revealed that M/s Amit Traders, registered with an address at OYO Hotel, Athgaon, Subhas Road, Guwahati, was a non-existent entity that had submitted fabricated documents during its GST registration.
Similarly, M/s Deepak Enterprise, operating with a fake address, was found to be involved in the purchase of goods from multiple traders, including M/s Shree Ram Enterprise, amounting to Rs 100.27 crore. M/s Deepak Enterprise received Rs 16.80 crore as a part of the wrongfully claimed input tax credit of Rs 116 crore by M/s Shree Ram Enterprise.
Upon thorough investigation, it was concluded that both M/s Amit Traders and M/s Deepak Enterprise were fictitious entities created by the accused masterminds, Tiwari and Gupta, to facilitate the generation of fake invoices. Their modus operandi involved recording the purchase of goods from these non-existent businesses on paper only, enabling them to fraudulently claim input tax credit and causing a loss to the government exchequer.
