The GST department has arrested the chairman and managing director of Kushal Group, an Ahmedabad-based conglomerate, for allegedly obtaining Rs 88.78 crore input tax credit (ITC) using fake invoices.
The arrested person, Sandeep Agrawal, whose group engaged in trading, manufacturing and infrastructure development, was arrested Monday by the preventive wing of the Central GST (CGST) Commissionerate.
“Sandeep Agrawal, CMD, Kushal Ltd, was arrested on April 1 for allegedly availing wrong input tax credit of Rs 88.78 crore on bogus invoices worth approximately Rs 672.32 crore without receipt of goods mentioned therein,” the CGST Commissionerate, Ahmedabad-South, said in a press release.
According to a statement issued by the department, Agrawal allegedly issued bogus invoices without supplying the goods mentioned in them, thereby illegally availing input tax credit, causing evasion of a huge amount of GST, it said.
“Agrawal masterminded the fraud and was involved in the receipt of fake bills/invoices and issuance of invoices without the supply of actual goods,” the commissionerate said.
The entire transaction shown with the purpose to illegally avail input tax credit was merely on paper and no actual physical goods were either purchased or sold, it said.
The invoices were not accompanied with LR or e-way bills, it said. During the investigation, Agarwal confessed that no e-way bills, LR or transport documents were available because there was no physical movement of goods, the release said.
“Multiple firms located in multiple states were used by Kushal Ltd to receive a fake input tax credit which was passed on to the multiple firms without any actual supply of goods, thereby illegally utilising and passing ITC of Rs 88.78 crore,” it said.
