Cracking a whip on bogus companies, the Delhi Government has cancelled the registration certificates of 43 traders who have evaded value-added tax (VAT) of crores in the past one year. The turnover of these bogus companies was shown to be Rs 778.90 crore in 2013-14 and during physical verification by the authorities, these companies were found non-existent.
“last week Value-Added Tax Inspectors (VATIs) visited the various premises and 43 high risk dealers, which declared turnover of Rs 778.90 crore for the year 2013-14. Registration certificates of such dealers were cancelled after they were found non-existent,” Commissioner (Trade & Tax) Amit Yadav said on Wednesday.
The Pioneer had published the report on June 27 that Delhi’s top businessmen have evaded value-added tax (VAT) worth a staggering Rs 2,000 crore in the last one year. This startling revelation has been made during the assessment of 160 bogus traders of the city. Following the report, licences of more than 160 traders were cancelled later.
According to Yadav, the practice of evading VAT by bogus dealers has picked up in the last few years. These traders have been found to use bogus receipts to accept and make transactions thereby evading the taxes to the State exchequer. These bogus dealers secure registration by providing wrong credentials, officials said. Some of the firms, officials said, were located in slum areas running in small jhuggies, and some were traced to barren lands where there were no concrete constructions. Yadav said that the Enforcement Branch of the Department has conducted a number of raids in the city through various inspection teams.
Input Tax Credit (ITC) of Rs 30.75 crore was also disallowed during this week. Commissioner has also directed to detect the chain of sale of such dealers and issued instruction to take strict action as per the provision of DVAT Act 2004. Yadav maintained that the raids will continue and the action against such bogus traders would be further intensified. “The Department not only expects to recover due tax with penalty but also follow it up to ensure that the fraudulent dealer are arrested,” Yadav added. last week, registration certificates of around 129 bogus traders were cancelled by the Department.