A pan-India fake invoice racket involving transactions of about Rs 434 crore by 23 firms has been busted by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Nagpur, an official release said on Wednesday.
Rs 78.13 crore of the fraudulent input tax credit was availed by those involved in the racket, it said.
Simultaneous searches were conducted by the officers of DGGI, Nagpur Zonal Unit at a number of places in the city, which led to further searches at Jalandhar, Sonepat and New Delhi, it said.
The probe revealed that 23 firms across India, from Tamil Nadu to New Delhi, were involved in issuance of fake invoices to get fraudulent `Input Tax Credit' without supply of any goods, it said.
These firms engaged only in paper transactions of goods, ranging from iron and steel products, insulated wires, plastic articles to copper/aluminum waste. No actual movement of goods took place, the release said.
"The declared places of business of these entities were residences and the supporting documents uploaded by these entities had been forged.
"The modus operandi...was to obtain GST registrations on the basis of documents of unrelated individuals and carry out bogus transactions," the release said.
The value of fake transactions was found to be Rs 434 crore, while Rs 78.13 crore of fraudulent input tax credit was availed, it said, adding that further probe was on.