truck loaded with wood seized
Jagran correspondent, Moradabad. A big case of input tax credit (ITC) evasion worth crores of rupees through bogus firms under the guise of timber business has come to light. In the action of the mobile team unit, two trucks loaded with wood were caught from Amroha, Nagla and Siohara, which exposed the entire wood syndicate. As the investigation progressed, shocking facts came to light one after another.
The mobile team unit caught a truck loaded with wood from Amroha Nagla, while another truck was caught from Siohara. Investigation revealed that one truck had a valid bill, while the other truck did not have any bill. The name of the firm was registered in the driver of the truck in which the bill was found, Bharat Enterprises. This firm was found registered in CGST department in Sitapur.
Amount sent to Haryana accounts
When the bills of Bharat Enterprises were examined in depth, it was revealed that the purchase of wood was shown from Rampur, while the sale was shown to firms from Haryana. An amount of Rs 3.47 crore was transferred to the accounts of businessmen of Haryana and the surprising thing was that the entire amount was withdrawn from the accounts on the same day.
After scrutinizing the records of Bharat Enterprises, it was found that five bogus firms associated with this firm are active. Among these, Surya Enterprises Sitapur and Jogeshwar Traders Hardoi stood out prominently. Surya Enterprises showed a turnover of Rs 1.24 crore and Jogeshwar Traders showed a turnover of about Rs 9.10 crore, but despite this not even a single rupee of tax was deposited in the government account.
An FIR has already been registered against Surya Enterprises in Bijnor. The investigation has also revealed the name of a person from Kashipur, Riyasat, who withdrew amounts of Rs 9 lakh and Rs 10 lakh each from the accounts through cheque. This makes it clear that layers of transactions were created by systematically withdrawing the amount in small portions, so that the investigating agencies could be misled.
Apart from this, fraud also came to light regarding firms named AS Traders Sitapur, Srishti Traders Sitapur and Rolex Traders Sitapur. These firms were showing paper business of selling cement, rebar and other construction materials to two firms of Lucknow. The operators of all these firms had got GST registration done on the basis of bogus documents.
The amount was withdrawn at one time
The most shocking thing is that no actual transactions took place in the bank accounts mentioned at the time of registration. All the firms have shown IIM Chauraha, near Maharishi University, Lucknow as their address and the bank accounts of all the five firms have been opened in the same Axis Bank.
Money was withdrawn from all five accounts at the same time, which clearly points towards an organized syndicate. According to the investigating agencies, bogus ITC was being passed to Haryana through the entire network. In reality, neither tax was collected nor actual business was done, causing huge loss to the government exchequer.
According to Additional Commissioner Grade One Moradabad Zone Ashok Kumar Singh, this is an organized and well-planned gang of ITC theft, whose roots are spread across many states. At present, mobile teams and tax department teams are busy investigating all the concerned firms, bank accounts and transactions.
SIB of Lucknow and Moradabad will jointly investigate
Lucknow State Tax Additional Commissioner Grade 2 Amresh Tripathi and Moradabad Additional Commissioner Grade 2 RA Seth will jointly take action against wood tax evaders in this case. Information will also be given to the Principal Secretary and State Tax Commissioner in this matter.
Two timber trucks were seized. In which one had the bill and the other did not get the bill. After scrutinizing the records of the bill on which the name of the firm was registered, it was found that five firms were bogus. All these firms are being linked closely.
- RA Seth, Additional Commissioner Grade II State Tax Moradabad Zone
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