GST scam: 14 held, GujCTOC invoked
AHMEDABAD: Fourteen of 20 people allegedly involved in the Aadhaar-GST fake billing scam have been arrested by officials of the state goods and services tax department (SGST). These arrests were carried out in Bhavnagar on Tuesday, confirmed reliable sources. In a significant move, the SGST officials have invoked the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Act (GujCTOC) against these 20 repeat offenders, who have also been linked to previous Aadhaar-GST scams.
The breakthrough in the scam came when the SGST uncovered approximately 13,345 fraudulent GST registration numbers (GSTINs) nationwide. These GSTINs were fraudulently obtained by deceiving unsuspecting people and manipulating their Aadhaar data to evade tax through fake billing. Of these, around 4,308 bogus GSTINs were traced back to Gujarat, representing the highest number in India.
Informed sources told TOI that fake billing amounting to Rs 20,000 crore is expected to have been done using these bogus GSTINs.
This marks the first instance where the SGST department has invoked GujCTOC against 20 people identified as repeat offenders in such cases. Over the past year, 141 individuals have been arrested for bogus billing scams.
The extensive number of fraudulent registrations came to light following thorough data analytics conducted by the SGST after detecting different Aadhaar-GST scams, including Aadhaar 1.0 in Palitana in Feb 2023 and Aadhaar 2.0 in Ahmedabad.
In Aadhaar 1.0, Gujarat Police registered five FIRs and made 141 arrests. About 6,000 bogus GSTINs were obtained through this scam.
As many as 7,345 fake GSTINs were obtained recently when Aadhaar 2.0 was unearthed in Ahmedabad. Sources confirmed that scamsters targeted people in the Danilimda, Behrampura and Amraiwadi areas of Ahmedabad.
Investigations revealed that the scammers would lure those who were financially vulnerable by promising to get them loans under government schemes. They would get their targets to visit the nearest Aadhaar kendra and alter the mobile numbers linked to the card. The fraudsters would then use the Aadhaar card details and the modified phone numbers to get new PAN cards and GST registrations, which were then used to carry out the tax evasion scam.
“Each fake GSTIN is sold for anything ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2 lakh, depending on the stake of the buyer and seller involved,” a source told TOI. Bogus GSTINs were also detected in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, UP and Delhi.
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