PUNJAB TAX DEPARTMENT CRACKS DOWN ON FAKE BILLING SCAMS WORTH THOUSANDS CRORES

The Voice of Chandigarh:

Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema announced that an investigation by the state tax department’s enforcement wing has uncovered fake billing scams worth thousands of crores. Two firms dealing in gold were found to have generated fake bills worth Rs.860 crore, while 303 firms dealing in iron were involved in fake billings of Rs 4044 crore. Additionally, 68 firms were found to have engaged in fake billing of Rs 533 crore after getting their firms registered in others’ names.

During a press conference at Punjab Bhawan, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema provided details on these cases. He informed that on inspection of a firm dealing in gold in Amritsar, the Enforcement Wing found that fake bills of gold worth 336 crores were made by the said firm for sale and purchase of gold. He said that the registration of the two firms from which said firm had shown that it purchased the gold had been cancelled, and these firms further had no record of purchasing any gold.

Referring to the Ludhiana-based firm which did similar manipulation in gold transactions, the Finance Minister said that gold sale-purchase was made against fake bills worth Rs 424 crores by the said firm. He said that in this case also, the registration of the two firms from which the said firm has shown purchase of gold had been cancelled, and this case too these firms further had no record of purchasing any gold.

Apart from this, giving information about the fake sale-purchase of iron worth Rs 4044 crore by 303 firms, the Finance Minister said that 11 firms out of these firms are registered with Punjab, 86 firms with other states, and 206 firms with the Central Government. He said that 217 firms registered with the Center and Punjab had outstanding ITC of 89.7 crore which has been blocked by the Center and the state government. He said that a total fake ITC of Rs 707 crore was claimed in this case. He said that the state tax 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, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema also gave information about the case of 68 firms involved in fake billing registered in other persons’ names. He said that the department has identified 5 persons and filed an FIR against them at Ludhiana, and a total of 11 persons have been named. He noted that 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.

Referring to the efforts being made by the state to prevent tax evasion, the Finance Minister said that the Punjab Tax Department is linking the GST registration in the state with AADHAR based bio-metric 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) etc, the Punjab government under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has succeeded in ensuring more than 13 percent growth in GST collection while during the previous government this was limited to only 6 percent.

The Finance Minister was accompanied by Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Financial Commissioner (Taxation), Vikas Pratap, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Varun Roojam, and Joint Commissioner (Taxation) Jaskaran Singh Brar during this press conference.