GST authorities have unearthed a tax racket and arrested one person for allegedly defrauding the government to the tune of about Rs 140 crore through fraudulent means.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in a release said that the Central GST Delhi North Commissionerate has unearthed a racket "involving supply of goods-less invoices and invoice-less goods".
One person has been arrested in the connection and sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
The accused was found to be operating 10 fake firms which were created for rotation of money and fraudulent Input Tax Credit (ITC), thus defrauding the exchequer.
"Prima facie fraudulent ITC of about Rs 140 crore has been passed on using invoices involving an amount of Rs 1,040 crore," it said.
Giving further details, it said the modus operandi of the accused, inter alia, involved obtaining GST registration of fake firms using documents of unsuspecting individuals and generating good-less invoices and e-way bills of these firms from a premise in Tilak Bazar, Delhi.
On preliminary scrutiny it appears that there is no nexus between inward and outward supplies of the errant firms, CBIC said.
Further, the fake firms have passed on fraudulent ITC to a range of buyers who have availed the same to discharge their GST liability on outward supplies, thus defrauding the exchequer.