The Delhi Government has unearthed a cyber-tax fraud worth Rs 262 crore committed by over 8,700 traders who were found showing fraudulent tax deposits into 13 banks since 2013, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Wednesday.
Sisodia, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said the Trade and Taxes Department has registered a complaint with the Delhi Police’s Economic Office Wing (EOW) for registration of FIRs into the matter.
According to Delhi Police spokesperson Anil Mittal, “Reena Toppo, VAT officer Delhi, has given a complaint against some business firms which had claimed input tax credit under GST on the basis of fictitious documents and non-existent bank accounts.”
Preliminary amount involved is Rs 9.97 crore. Complaint is being examined at EOW, said Mittal
“Delhi Govt tax authorities have unearthed a big cyber-tax fraud. More than 8,000 registered dealers have been found showing fraudulent tax deposits into 13 banks. The matter has been handed over to EOW, Delhi Police. The AAP Government believes in zero tolerance to any corrupt practices,” Sisodia tweeted.
Earlier in the day, the Deputy Chief Minister said during the scrutiny of suspected fraud transactions, it was noticed that such kind of fraud had been continuing since 2013 and it was going on until it was detected by the department.
“The Government has detected cyber-tax fraud of Rs 262 crore. As per our initial investigation, around 8,700 traders are involved in the fraud. It is a very serious issue that should be investigated thoroughly,” he said.
“The authorities were on high alert for three months following some hints received by the department during verification of the credit of the payments made by the dealers registered with the department,” he said.
According to the note issued by Delhi’s VAT/GST Commissioner Rajesh Prasad, “During the verification of the payments made by the dealers, the system branch of the department found that some of the payments claimed to have been made through banking channel were received by the Government exchequer.”
The note stated that the system branch scrutinised the available records and necessary official letters were sent to some banks in order to verify the veracity of few credits of payments shown in the VAT and CST returns of some dealers.
“In response to our letters, these banks have confirmed that the said payments have not been credited to the Government exchequer,” the note stated.
During further scrutiny, it was noticed that the fraud was happening since September 30, 2013. The scam continued to happen during financial years 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, it reads. “ It further noticed that during the period between September 30, 2013 and September 26, 2018, a total number of 8,758 dealers have been identified who made 31,027 transactions amounting to Rs 262,62,73,327,” the note said.
As per the note, the preliminary scrutiny has revealed that the dealers involved have executed the scam as part of a criminal conspiracy in order to cheat and commit fraud to the Government exchequer.