The Gujarat State Goods and Services Tax Department (SGST) officials arrested 14 people in Bhavnagar for their alleged involvement in the Aadhaar-GST scam in the state.
These arrested accused are among the 20 offenders against whom SGST officials have invoked the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Act (GujCTOC). These accused have reportedly also been linked to previous Aadhaar-GST scams.
The breakthrough in the fake billing 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.
Fake billing amounting to Rs 20,000 crore is expected to have been done using these bogus GSTINs.
Over the past year, 141 individuals have been arrested for bogus billing scams.
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. Bogus GSTINs were also detected in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, UP and Delhi.
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