Chartered accountant arrested for GST fraud worth 83 crore

Coimbatore, July 1, 2023

Sleuths from the directorate general of GST intelligence have arrested a Chennai-based chartered accountant for causing loss to the exchequer by helping companies claim bogus input tax credit to the tune of 83 crore.

The officers, attached to the Trichy regional unit, conducted searches across Chennai, Virudhunagar and Tirupur on June 26 based on a tip-off, and seized documents in physical and digital formats.

“Based on the searches and inquiries, we found a large number of firms floated by the chartered accountant, but there was no business activity. He had prepared invoices to show the firms had supplied materials to companies. The companies benefited through the fake invoices as they adjusted the input tax credit in the tax they were supposed to pay to the government,” a senior officer from the Coimbatore zonal unit said. “The companies paid him commission based on the fake invoice amounts. The criminal activity triggered a cascading effect at multiple levels in the tax system and caused huge loss to the government. The accountant’s name cannot be divulged as the investigation is going on,” he added.

[The Times of India]