Office of the Principal Commissioner,

Central Goods and Services Tax, Meerut

Mangal Pandey Nagar, Opposite C.C.S University, Meerut-250005, Phone No. 0121-2762632, Fax No. 2761783

Dated: 3rd February 2021

PRESS RELEASE

In the ongoing campaign against fake/bogus invoices launched by Chief Commissioner, Meerut Zone, officers of Central Goods and Service Tax (CGST) Commissionerate, Meerut have unearthed yet another case of fake GST invoicing of ₹ 200 crore (approx) by carrying out simultaneous searches at 11 locations in Meerut & Ghaziabad. The syndicate was being operated by Sh. Vikas Jain and persons employed by him for carrying cash and bills. He was managing and controlling more than 30 firms including firms in the name of his wife and driver at Meerut with the intent of passing of inadmissible ITC. Sh. Vikas Jain through these firms has passed on fake ITC of ₹ 42 crores by issuing invoices for building materials like Cement, Steel etc.

He was running the whole racket from a rented flat in Ghaziabad and firms in the name of his family and employees were either non-existent or non-functional. The proprietors of the firms other than those in the name of his family were being paid petty monthly consideration for using their ids. During the search, incriminating records, copy of invoices issued, check-books of multiple fake firms and Indian Currency of ₹ 2.23 crore have been recovered & seized for further investigation.

In this case several recipient firms who had availed the fraudulently passed ITC have been identified and one such firm registered at Meerut has deposited an amount of ₹ 2 crores towards partial discharge of their GST liability arising out of their irregular availment of ITC passed on by Vikas Jain from his firms.

Therefore, the offence so committed by the accused under Section 132(1)(b) & (c) of the CGST Act 2017, falls in the category of cognizable and non-bailable offence under Section 132(5) and is punishable under Section 132(1)(i) of the said Act. Accordingly, the accused was arrested under Section 69 of the CGST Act, 2017 and produced before the Economic Offences Court at Meerut on 03.02.2021 and they have been sent to jail on judicial remand for 14 days by order of the Special CJM, Meerut. Further investigations are underway.

The officers of CGST, Meerut have exposed fake billing of value of more than ₹ 3500 crore and arrested 6 persons so far in the ongoing campaign against the fake billers and GST evaders. Indian Currency of more than ₹ 2.5 Crore has also been seized in last one year in the ongoing campaign. Inadmissible GST of ₹ 13 crores has been recovered in last one year in these GST evasion cases.

(S. V. Singh)

Principal Commissioner

Fake GST invoicing resulted in arrests, seizures and criminal prosecution under CGST Act and further investigations ongoing. Unlawful GST invoicing scheme uncovered through coordinated searches revealed a syndicate operating over thirty firms to generate and circulate inadmissible ITC by issuing fictitious invoices for building materials; searches yielded records, invoices, checkbooks and cash, recipient firms availing the fraudulent credits were identified and criminal proceedings under the CGST Act have been initiated with arrests and judicial remand.