The Central Goods and Services (CGST) Commissionerate has detected evasion of GST worth several crores by a firm in Uttarakhand’s Uddham Singh Nagar district. It recovered ₹5 crore in a search operation carried out simultaneously at nine locations across Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, and Delhi. People aware of the matter said the Commissionerate has detected tax evasion of around ₹8 crore.

Deepankar Aron, commissioner Central GST Commissionerate (Dehradun), said the modus operandi entailed taking fraudulent input credit of GST on fake supplies. “This fraudulent credit was then utilised to pay the output duty liability of the various outward supplies effected by the unit, thereby obviating the need to pay the requisite duty in cash leading to the evasion of revenues.”

Aron said based on intelligence, an investigation was initiated against Galwalia Ispat Udyog Pvt Ltd, Kashipur. “As per the inputs available, it appears that the firm fraudulently availed input tax credit on the basis of invoices issued by either non-existent firms or by firms without actual supply of goods.”He said accordingly, investigations were initiated by conducting simultaneous searches at three locations in Kashipur, which includes two premises of Galwalia Ispat Udyog Pvt Ltd and the residential premises of its directors, Yogesh Kumar Jindal and Akshay Jindal, on August 17. “In addition, searches were also conducted at the locations of its suppliers located in Delhi, Aligarh, Moradabad, Amroha and in Garhwa (Jharkhand).”

Aron said during the searches conducted at Kashipur, various incriminating documents were recovered. Statements of the directors of the firm and other employees were also recorded.

The searches at the declared premises of Shree Shyam traders, Delhi, and Shree traders, Aligarh, revealed them to be non-existent. “Another supplier, Govind trader in Garwha (Ranchi) admitted to the modus operandi of issuing fake invoices without actual supply of goods and admitted to the GST liability,” said Aron.

Aron said when confronted with the evidence on record, Yogesh Kumar Jindal voluntarily paid ₹ 5 crore towards his GST duty liability so evaded. Further investigations are underway in the matter, he added.