GST fraud of Rs 138 cr busted in Odisha, 4 arrested

Bhubaneswar: The GST enforcement authorities of Odisha have arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in fraudulently availing and passing of bogus input tax credit of Rs 128 crore and Rs 138 crore on the strength of fake invoices, said GST Commissioner Sushil Lohani today.

The arrested have been identified as Rama Chandra Mallick of Jajpur, partner of M/s Biraja Steel, Jajpur; Dindayal Agarwal of Rourkela, lessee of M/s Biraja Steel; Aditya Kumar Nayak of Rourkela, partner of M/s Biraja Steel, Director of M/s Ananatabhuja Construction Pvt Ltd, and proprietor of M/s Akhandalmani Enterprises; and Atul Bansal of Rourkela who is the mastermind behind the multi-crore fraud.

According to official sources, Atul Bansal and others had created as many as 20 fictitious and dummy firms in the name of housewives, taxi drivers, labourers, plumbers, unemployed youths etc.  On the pretext of giving gainful employment, the accused had obtained identity documents from them, taken registration and shown purchase of iron and steel goods worth Rs 603 crore and sale of Rs 743 crore in their name without payment of tax and passed on bogus ITC worth Rs 138 crores to recipients residing inside and outside Odisha.

Further, in order to legalize the fake transactions and hoodwink the department, bank accounts were also opened in the name of these dummy firms. Huge amount of cash transactions have been made through these accounts which are under investigation. During the course of investigation, many of the dummy firms were found to be non-existent and non-operational from their registered place of business. 

While three accused were arrested from Rourkela, one was apprehended from Jajpur. The GST scam involves revenue loss amounting to Rs 138 crores.