The State GST enforcement wing on Friday busted a GST invoice racket and unearthed a fraud invloving Rs 115 crore. Two persons were arrested in this connection. The arrested duo was identified as Sujit Maitra and Gurudip Dang. While Sujit was arrested from Bhubaneswar, Gurudip was nabbed from Rourkela.
The accused had created 16 fictitious business entities at seven places across State in order to evade GST, said GST Commissioner Sushil Kumar Lohani. “The accused generated fake invoices of Rs 641 crore against fictitious firms and availed input tax credit of Rs 115 crore,” Lohani said. “Gurudip Dang is managing partner of Tirupati Traders while Sujit Maitra was an authorised partner of Satguru Metals, Rourkela. We will produce them in court and pray not to grant them bail,” Lohani said.
The accused persons were dealing with iron and steel goods within and outside Odisha. The bogus firms created by them to evade tax are registered in Angul, Rourkela, Tirtol, Bonai, Erasama, Riamal and Sundargarh.
Lohani said State GST enforcement wing has so far arrested 20 persons for their involvement in similar offences of issuance of fake invoice and evading tax.