Bogus bills of steel firms: 7 booked for tax evasion

Chandigarh: Punjab has booked seven men in a ₹70 crore tax evasion scam, exposing fake companies that issued bogus invoices and claimed fraudulent input tax credits.

The state taxation department has filed two new cases against these seven individuals. Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema announced the actions on Monday, stating that the fraudulent transactions amounted to more than ₹385 crore.

The first case, filed on Sept 12, involves Rajdhani Iron Products and its directors, Manish Garg and Rythem Garg. Investigators uncovered a network of fake companies that had fraudulently claimed input tax credit, or ITC, a mechanism that allows businesses to deduct taxes paid on inputs from the tax owed on their final products. Physical verification of the business locations confirmed they were nonexistent, and the firm is accused of ₹310 crore in fraudulent transactions, leading to a ₹55.9 crore tax evasion.

In a separate action, another case was registered on Sept 9 against K K Industries and its associates, Chandan Singh, Amandeep Singh, and Mukesh. This firm is accused of issuing fake invoices without the actual movement of goods, which facilitated the wrongful passing of ITC to other companies. Investigations exposed ₹75 crore in fraudulent transactions, leading to a tax evasion of ₹13.6 crore.

Additionally, a new investigation was launched against Deepak Singla and Vivek Singla in Bathinda, who are accused of facilitating the movement of unaccounted iron and steel goods without proper billing, causing further loss to the state exchequer.

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