Raipur, 24 February 2024
The State GST Department of Chhattisgarh has taken major action by raiding industrial establishments at many places in the state in the last three days. The department has detected tax evasion worth crores of rupees by raiding many places in all the divisions. The department is not only using IT tools to detect theft but is also taking action on the basis of information obtained from checking e-way bills and information being collected from the field. It is worth noting that this time in the budget of Chhattisgarh, the formation of Business Intelligence Unit under the State Tax Department has also been mentioned. In this, work will be done on increasing transparency along with preventing tax evasion by using modern technologies.
According to the information received from the State GST Department, 11 traders in Raipur, Durg, Raigarh, Janjgir and Manendragarh are RAIS Petroleum Raipur, A. S. Nearly Tax of Rs 7 crore 60 lakh was seized on the spot and got it surrendered. The GST department is committed to prevent tax evasion through the use of advanced IT tools. The process of checking e-way bill is also being done regularly by them, for which various teams have been formed. In the month of February alone, 33 vehicles in Raipur division, 34 in Bilaspur division and 9 in Durg division have been seized by the teams due to irregularities found in the e-way bill. Out of these, penalty of about Rs 57 lakh has also been collected from 28 vehicles. Action on the remaining vehicles is still going on. The department is keeping a special eye on those who create bogus firms and transport goods in their name.
The contractors of RAIS Petroleum Raipur also have the business of bitumen supply and transportation. He had made a bogus claim of ITC in his return. He accepted to pay less tax of about Rs 2.5 crore and surrendered Rs 1 crore on the spot. Candid Security Services of Raipur also did not deposit tax in its return. When they were raided, they admitted not paying tax amounting to about Rs 3.5 crore and deposited Rs 1 crore on the spot.
A. S. Tax liability was being hidden by mining by forming a firm in the name of other family members and doing circular trading. When his offices in Manendragarh and Raipur were raided by the authorities, he deposited Rs 30 lakh on the spot. Agarwal Steel and Pipe Raipur was also raided by the officials and Rs 30 lakh was deposited. Sky alloy and power ltd. On investigation in Raigarh, difference in stock, concealment of turnover and taking of wrong ITC were found. Tax of Rs 60 lakh was immediately deposited by the businessman. Officials said that the amount of tax will increase further due to further scrutiny of documents. Pilaniya Industries and Pilaniya Steels of Durg were also raided. Here too less tax was collected by showing less turnover.
Shyam Steel Industries, Ishwar Ispat and Ishwar TMT were purchasing raw scrap to make bars and evading GST. Shyam Steel Industries accepted short deposit of GST of Rs 5 crore and deposited tax of Rs 3 crore on the spot. Similarly, Ishwar Ispat and Ishwar TMT also deposited tax of Rs 46 lakh and Rs 1.25 crore on spot respectively.
The team of officials from Janjgir has also investigated the office of Refex Industries. This firm is involved in handling coal ash from power plants as well as trading of coal. The company’s headquarters is in Chennai, where only the employees look after the work. There is a possibility of getting caught in big tax evasion in this also.
