ARTICLE
Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema Friday said an investigation by the state taxation department’s enforcement wing has uncovered fake billing scams worth over Rs 4,537 crore involving 373 firms. While two firms dealing in gold were found to have generated fake bills worth Rs 860 crore, another 303 firms dealing in iron were involved in fake billings of Rs 4,044 crore, Cheema said. Additionally, 68 firms were found to have engaged in fake billing of Rs 533 crore after getting their firms registered in other names, he added. Addressing media in Chandigarh , Cheema, who also holds the Excise and Taxation department portfolio, said, “On inspection of a firm dealing in gold in Amritsar, the enforcement wing found that fake bills worth Rs 336 crore were generated for sale and purchase of gold from two other companies”. He said that the registrations of the two firms from which the company showed that it has purchased gold have been cancelled. The two firms in question have no record of purchasing any gold, Cheema added. A Ludhiana -based company too did similar manipulation and showed fake gold sale-purchase worth Rs 424 crore from two firms. In this case too, the registrations of the two said firms have been cancelled, he said, adding that in this case too, the firms had no record of purchasing any gold. Earlier, the department was investigating whether the gold was part of the consignment stolen from the Pearson airport in Toronto in April 2023 from Air Canada’s cargo facility. Reached for comments, a senior official privy to the ongoing investigation, said, “The gold does not seem to have any connection with the heist at the Pearson airpot. The time period of the ‘purchase’ and the heist do not match”. Cheema refused to comment, stating that they were only concerned about the tax part. “The rest is a part of investigations,” he said. Meanwhile, on the fake sale-purchase of iron worth Rs 4,044 crore by 303 firms, Cheema said that it was found that 11 of these firms are registered with Punjab, 86 with other states, and 206 with the central government. He said the 217 firms registered with the Centre and Punjab had an outstanding ITC of Rs 89.7 crore, which has been blocked by the two governments. “A total fake ITC of Rs 707 crore was claimed in this case,” he said. Cheema said the state taxation department has taken action against all 11 firms, and their registration has been cancelled or suspended, and the action is ongoing as per the law while the list of the remaining 206 firms has been given to the concerned authorities of the central government. Meanwhile, while giving information about the case of 68 firms involved in fake billing registered in other persons’ names, he said the department has identified five persons and filed an FIR against them at Ludhiana and a total of 11 persons have been named. Bogus billing of Rs 533 crore has been found in this case, “due to which nearly Rs 100 crore of fake ITC has been claimed”, he added. Referring to the efforts being made by the state to prevent tax evasion, the finance minister said that the department is linking the GST registration in Punjab with Aadhaar -based biometric authentication so that the persons registering in the name of others can be identified and caught in time. He said that due to the initiatives like setting up of the Tax Intelligence Unit (TIU), and State Intelligence and Preventive Unit (SIPU), the Punjab government has succeeded in ensuring more than 13 per cent growth in GST collection as against 6 per cent during the previous government. None
What’s New
Spotlight
Advertisement
Featured News
Latest From This Week
Popular News
