Nagpur: In a massive crackdown to tackle the menace of Fake Invoices and availment of fraudulent Input Tax Credit, massive co-ordinated operations have been conducted by the officers of DGGI, Nagpur Zonal Unit in the last 3 months. These operations were spread over the entire Maharashtra State, including multiple locations in Mumbai, and involved recording of statements of a large number of persons and unearthing of thousands of Fake Invoices during the operations.
Each fake transaction was meticulously checked with the details entered in the E Way Bill Portal and in thousands of transactions, it was found that the Transport vehicles mentioned in the E Way Bills were either not in existence or were 2 wheelers, 3 wheelers or non-transport vehicles.
On sustained interrogation of the authorized persons during the searches, it was revealed that in most cases, they had been lured with petty sums to allow their names to be used for opening Proprietorship firms or Partnership firms which were later used for issuing fake invoices and passing fraudulent Input Tax Credit.
The summary of these investigations is as under:
(i). Value of fake transactions detected is approximately Rs. 825 Crore
(ii). Fraudulent Input Tax Credit detected is approximately Rs. 148 Crore, out of which app. Rs. 6 Crore has been recovered.
(iii). Over 10,000 Fake Invoices have been detected, involving 58 Entities
(iv). Authorities have searched 75 places across Maharashtra
(v). Over 140 statements of around 80 authorized persons
(vi). 4 persons have been arrested so far. Some persons are absconding and are expected to be intercepted soon.