Surat, Jul 20 (IANS): The Surat zonal unit of the Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence (DGGI) has arrested two individuals for their alleged involvement in claiming wrongful Input Tax Credit (ITC) through the creation of fake bills.

The accused, identified as Kadri Mohammad Mateen Ahmed Riyazuddin, the manager of M/s Blueberry, and Anant Chaturvedi, the director of Checkers India Technology Pvt Ltd, collectively availed an amount of Rs. 58.5 crore in ITC. As part of the investigation, DGGI officials conducted searches from June 21 to July 13 at 11 fraudulent firms along with three recipient firms. Preliminary findings suggest that these 11 firms have supplied fraudulent ITC worth Rs. 110 crore in goods, allegedly valued at Rs. 615 crore, to various recipients. Riyazuddin fraudulently obtained Rs. 27.7 crore ITC through M/s Blueberry, while Anant Chaturvedi acquired Rs. 30.8 crore ITC. An official from DGGI revealed that the arrested individuals, under Section 70 of the CGST Act 2017, have admitted to obtaining fraudulent ITC based on tax invoices issued and received from fictitious, non-existent, and non-operational firms, without actually receiving any corresponding goods. Additionally, Chaturvedi is involved in operating the business-to-business e-commerce platform called excess2sell, which facilitates sale and purchase of goods.