Power to arrest under G.S.T Law used by Central Commissionerate : Two arrested in Mumbai in the case of GST Fraud. This is First Arrests Under GST Law.
Mumbai:
Strong enforcement action under the goods and services tax (GST) regime, the Mumbai division of the central government’s indirect tax arm said on Wednesday it has made the first arrests under the Central GST Act for alleged fraud.
Source:-Press Read Issued on cbec website
CGST Mumbai Central Commissionerate arrested Sanjiv Pravin Mehta, director of Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt Ltd, and Vinaykumar D Arya, director of V N Industries, for availing "ineligible credit" of Rs 5.20 crore and Rs 2.03 crore, respectively, the Commissionerate said in the statement.
The alleged offence committed by Shah Brothers Ispat is non-bailable while that by VN Industries is bailable as the amount is below Rs 5 crore, it added.
It was possible that similar fraud had taken place in several other companies, it said in the statement.
"They (the companies) were only exchanging invoices for so-called sale and purchase. There was only paper and invoice movement, but no actual sale or purchase of goods," the statement said.
An investigation revealed that these exchanges were being done with a "malafide intention to defraud the exchequer by opening Letters of Credit (LCs) on fake purchase transactions," the statement added.
In a statement following the arrests, the Central Board of Excise and Customs sought to allay fears that lapses in GST filing could result in similar action.
"The power to arrest is to be exercised where there is deliberate fraud of sizeable magnitude with intent to evade tax. It is meant to serve as a deterrent to unscrupulous elements in trade
who may try to defraud the system. There are sufficient checks built into the law to ensure that inadvertent or procedural lapses do not attract severe punitive measures," it said.
Implementation of the e-way bill system—an electronic documentation system tracking the movement of goods and preventing underreporting and evasion of taxes—will be rolled out from 1 April after technological glitches forced the GST Council to defer the roll out initially scheduled for 1 February.
who may try to defraud the system. There are sufficient checks built into the law to ensure that inadvertent or procedural lapses do not attract severe punitive measures," it said.
Implementation of the e-way bill system—an electronic documentation system tracking the movement of goods and preventing underreporting and evasion of taxes—will be rolled out from 1 April after technological glitches forced the GST Council to defer the roll out initially scheduled for 1 February.
“Eight months have passed since GST was introduced. A lot of outreach programmes have been held. It is now time to take enforcement action to improve compliance” said a person with knowledge of the thinking in the GST Council who did not wish to be identified. This person said anti-evasion measures will be taken by both central and state-level officers.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley had on Tuesday lamented the non-compliance levels in industry saying that the next round of rationalisation in the GST structure, involving the merger of the two standard rates of 12% and 18%, will have to wait until compliance improves.
"
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your kind comments.