54 Crore GST Refund Scam exposed by Delhi's Anti-Corruption Branch
New Delhi: In a massive crackdown, the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of Delhi has uncovered a scam involving fraudulent GST refunds within the Trade & Taxes department of the Delhi Government and arrested a Goods and Service tax officer along with six associates.
Seven people were arrested for allegedly running the racket of fake invoices and getting GST refunds from the department. The seven arrested persons include a GST officer, three advocates, two transporters, and a fake firm proprietor, informed ACB.
According to ACB, They created 96 fake firms, which were cunningly used to siphon off taxpayer money by claiming fraudulent GST refunds.
Shockingly, refunds worth rupees 35.51 crore were approved between 2021 and 2022. In the first year, only refunds worth rupees 7 lakh were approved but later the remaining were approved.
The GSTO, identified as Babita Sharma, played a pivotal role in this conspiracy. After being transferred to Ward No. 22 in July 2021, Sharma, in a highly suspicious move, swiftly approved the migration of 53 firms to her ward. These firms, which were later found to be non-existent during a physical verification by GST officials, were mere paper entities, set up solely to claim bogus refunds. Within just 2-3 days of filing refund applications, these refunds were sanctioned without the mandatory verification of Input Tax Credit (ITC), a crucial process to identify fraudulent claims, informed ACB.
The fake firms, which supposedly conducted business worth Rs718 crores, were found to be engaged in nothing more than a paper trail of deceit. Some firms even claimed to export medicines and medical items, but a closer inspection revealed that these transactions were built on forged purchase bills.
It was found that the same group of offenders operated 23 out of these 96 fake firms. Using common email IDs and mobile numbers, they created fake invoices worth rupees 176.67 crores, pocketing Rs5.81 crores in fraudulent refunds.
The investigation reveals that over 500 non-existent firms were implicated, and as many as 1,000 bank accounts linked to the scam. The role of other GST officials and proprietors is still under the scanner as the investigation is underway by ACB.
