Fake GST billing scam worth Rs 347 crore busted in Delhi, kingpin arrested

(Representative image)

Enforcement officials of the Delhi GST Department unearthed a Rs 347 crore fake GST billing scam on January 1. The total tax evasion in the chain is expected to be close to Rs 40 crore.

As many as 11 firms were found to be involved in the fake GST billing scam. These companies used to indulge in circular trading and issuing fake bills to claim fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC) to evade taxes.

These firms would also engage in issuing fake or inflated invoices without actually supplying the goods and had also settled unaccounted transactions in cash. The enforcement officials further discovered that several of these firms belong to only one person and might have been set up to create long tax chains to avoid detection by enforcement authorities.

Officials have found that four of these 11 firms had filed the tax returns from computers with the same IP address. Also, six firms had the same contact number and four were using the same email-id. Another two firms even had the same bank account number. In a secret verification conducted by the department inspectors, none of the eleven firms was found to be existing at its registered address.

Mayank Jain, the proprietor of Ms Super Steel India Ltd, is believed to be one of the kingpins of the fake GST billing scam. He was arrested by the Delhi State GST Department on January 1 and has been remanded to 14 days judicial custody by the judicial magistrate.

More arrests are expected to follow as the investigation progresses.