Two steel traders have been booked for tax duty evasion worth Rs 25 crore by floating two firms on a single tax identification number
(TIN).

According to local crime branch (LCB) officials of Bhavnagar police, a case has been registered against Vithal Pandya of Rajkamal Tradelink and Dipak Magiya, who listed his firm in the TIN of Rajkamal Tradelink, on a complaint of deputy commissioner enforcement, NM Patel.

In his complaint filed on Saturday, Patel alleged that Pandya had acquired input credit of value added tax worth Rs 13.64 lakh by showing Rs 11.76 crore worth transaction
with Ahmedabad-based bogus firms under the names of Shriji Traders, Modern Enterprise and Shreenath Enterprise. That apart, Pandya had also produced sales bills worth Rs 20.20 crore of several companies including Vallamb Impacs, Ganesh Trading, Kasturi Commodities, Lila Trading and Om Exim of Jamnagar to exempt from Rs 78.95 lakh tax.

"The scam was exposed after bogus bills were detected. Also exposed was association of Magiya with Pandya's firm through which Magiya had also practised similar fraud of bogus billing," said Patel.

"Magiya had done the transaction worth Rs 4. 16 crore with Bhachau-based Hans Ispat Limited company in Kutch and had siphoned off Rs five lakh by producing bogus bill of Rs 10 lakh," Patel explained.

Meanwhile, investigating LCB officials said that though no arrest was made in this case, work of gathering proof is on.