Dehradun: Terming it as one of the biggest GST e-way bill fraud, a massive tax evasion has been unearthed by Uttarakhand state commercial tax department.
It is suspected to be a financial fraud to the tune of Rs 8,000 crore under the Goods and Service Tax (GST), which was raided by 55 teams of GST officials in Uttarakhand's Dehradun on Monday.
In the raid, it is found that many traders are conducting illegal business activities through E-way bills generated using fake registration.
According to sources, the alleged fraud was committed by persons who allegedly raised the value of goods worth Rs 1,200 crores to Rs 8,000 crores through value addition in e-way bills.
E-way bill, or electronic waybill, is generated by GST-registered persons for the transport of goods exceeding Rs 50,000 in a vehicle. It is generated through an e-way bill portal.
Joint teams of Central and State GST have been conducting this operation in Uttarakhand for the last two months under the guidance of Directive of Finance Secretary, Amit Negi, conducting raids at various business locations across the state.
Commissioner of the commercial tax department, Uttarakhand, Saujanya said that during the raids conducted by department officials, in at least 70 firms, the fraudulently was registered.
She said, "The team has identified many traders in the state, who have been generating E-way bills by means of creating more than 70 bogus entities and doing business worth crores of rupees through e-way bills."
The firms were registered in Delhi with fake addresses of Uttarakhand and had raised e-way bills that were being uploaded in the GST portals.
The scrutiny of the e-way bills showed that 34 of the 70 firms were found to have generated e-bills citing purchase of machinery from Delhi worth Rs 1,200 crores. These companies then were showing sale purchase amongst each other.
She said that during investigating, the details of the persons mentioned in the registration of the firms, it was found that the name of the same person was mentioned in the registration of more than one firm but with different addresses.
“Uttarakhand as a state has not lost any GST revenue due to this fraud. Once our investigation is completed, we would send the reports to other states concerned where the fraud is suspected," said the commissioner.
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