More than 1,000 traders in the Diamond City are under the scanner of State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) department for creating fake bills. Officials of the SGST department have raided 62 offices and shops of traders dealing in textiles, scraps, tiles, machineries, grey fabrics and yarn in the city. Traders have evaded taxes worth Rs100 crore through bogus billing. According to sources, the department is verifying documents seized during the raids.
The SGST department unearthed the biggest ever fake billing scam of Rs6,030 since the implementation of GST on Saturday in which businessmen of different cities in Gujarat used bogus invoices to evade taxes to the tune of Rs910 crore.
The department has initiated a probe against 282 firms across the state for their involvement in the scam. Organized players in the market obtained GST registration in the name of persons who were not traders to show fake movement of goods and generate bogus purchase invoices, which were sold to traders on commission basis. The actual trader would then claim input tax credit (ITC) and evade taxes. An officer stated that they have also found transactions of circular billing scam to increase turnover and such accounts are being investigated.
