The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) will write to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to take necessary action for professional misconduct against three Chartered Accountants (CAs) who have been arrested in the GST fake invoice frauds, during the nationwide drive in last few days.

Sources at DGGI and CGST Commissionerates said that on the eighth day of the drive against fake invoice fraud, five more GST invoice fraudsters have been arrested, taking the tally to 41 so far which included a Chennai-based woman and three Chartered Accountants - two from Hyderabad and one from Ludhiana.

DGGI sources added that their office is in process of raising the issue of professional misconduct to the ICAI, the apex body regulating the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India, with regard to its three Chartered Accountant members arrested in fake invoice racket.

The arrested chartered accountants are PVV Satyanarayana, Ankur Garg, and Bondalapati Srinivasa Rao.

According to the sources, “DGGI Hyderabad zonal unit arrested Satyanarayana for his role in arranging and organising fake invoices of fictitious firms for M/s CTIL Ltd causing availment of fraudulent ITC of Rs 27.4 crore and CA Sh Bondalapati Srinivasa Rao, for arranging and organising fake invoices of fictitious firms for M/s Kineta Global Ltd resulting in fraudulent ITC of Rs 10.37 crore.”

Ankur Garg was arrested by the CGST Commissionerate Ludhiana for his role in creating 3 fake firms, through which he availed of ITC benefits and fraudulently monetized ITC through refunds and bogus billing.

Using BIFA and analysis of data on the e-way bill portal, it could be established that these firms had a common set of ghost partners and bogus bills worth Rs 158 crore had been generated, involving fake ITC of more than Rs 21 crore and monetisation of fake ITC of more than Rs 5 crore through cash refund.

With total 41 arrests of GST fraudsters so far, DGGI has booked 577 cases against 2,221 identified entities by the 8th day of its drive.

Today searches and surveys were conducted in 20 cities -- Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hosur, Pune, Nagpur, Siliguri, Patna, Bhopal, Surat, Hyderabad, Raipur, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur, Kanpur, Unnao, Meerut, Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Two arrests have been made in Gurugram while one each was made in Nagpur, Kolkata and Mumbai CGST Zones today.

Searches were conducted on multiple premises at Kanpur, Unnao, Delhi and Meerut in relation to nine GSTIN registrations.

Most of the addresses were found to be non-existent. The mastermind behind this racket, Amit Kumar is absconding and efforts are being made to apprehend him. At Hosur, during the course of premises verification, eight entities were found fictitious. From the inquiry conducted, it is found that the registrations were taken in the name of various persons by one auditor who was paying some amount to the identity lenders on monthly basis.

 

Source: CNBC TV18