The Delhi government's value added tax (VAT) department has cancelled registration certificates of 43 traders who had evaded paying VAT amounting to crores of rupees in the past one year.

The turnover of these companies was shown to be Rs 778.90 crore in the financial year 2013-14 but during physical verification, the authorities found these firms to be non-existent. "Last week VAT inspectors visited these premises and 43 high-risk dealers were found with the bogus declared turnover and registration certificates of such dealers were cancelled," commissioner (trade and tax) Amit Yadav said on Wednesday.

The practice has picked up since the past few years, he added. These traders secure registration by providing wrong credentials and use bogus receipts to accept and make transactions, evading payment of taxes to the state exchequer, officials said. Some of the addresses were traced to jhuggis and even barren land without any concrete construction.