By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 28 Dec: The state tax department late last evening conducted major raids on 16 locations and establishments located in Uttarakhand of 12 companies engaged in the trade of bitumen and fuel oil. During the raids, GST evasion to the tune of over Rs 12 crores has reportedly been detected by the State Tax Department. This is major action taken against GST evasion in Uttarakhand.
Sources in the state tax department revealed that raids were conducted in Dehradun, Rishikesh, Haridwar and Roorkee, Haldwani (Nainital district) and in Kashipur and Rudrapur of Udham Singh Nagar district by several teams constituted for the purpose by the State Tax Commissioner. Officials claimed that these firms were hiding fraudulent transactions related to their business. Scrutiny of the vehicles used in the e-way bills of these firms revealed that, in reality, the vehicles mentioned had not even passed through any toll plaza though the destinations shown in the e-way bills generated by these firms were such that the vehicles concerned would have to pass through the toll plazas on the dates shown in the e-way bills. In fact, some vehicles were detected to have crossed the toll plazas in locations other than the mentioned ones on the same dates as mentioned in the e-way bills.
A deeper investigation of the backdoor chain of the supplier firms of these firms revealed that these are either non-existent or their registration has been cancelled by the department. Some of these firms were also showing trade of goods which had never been purchased by them. These firms have been detected to be doing this for the last four years (2020-21 to 2023-24).
The raids continued till late last night. During this, the teams confiscated records, laptops, computers and mobile phones of the firms concerned. These firms have also deposited GST of Rs 1.13 crore on the spot during the course of investigation. A total of 16 teams were formed and 60 officers were included in the proceedings.
