Trader held for GST fraud

Ambala, May 16

A Punjab trader was arrested on Thursday on the charge of registering a fake firm on the GST portal and causing a loss of more than Rs2 crore to the state exchequer, the police have said.

The accused, Pardeep Kumar of Mandi Gobindgarh, had floated a fake firm and registered it in Ambala Cantonment in March 2018 on the basis of fake documents. He traded more than Rs20 crore and claimed more than Rs2 crore input tax credit in connivance with other traders of Haryana and Punjab within six months, the Excise and Taxation Department said.

On a complaint by Excise and Taxation Officer Ashwani Soni, the police arrested Kumar, kingpin of the GST scam, under Sections 406, 420, 467 and 471 of the IPC. He was sent to four-day police remand. — TNS