A significant incident of Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud has been uncovered in the Palghar district of Maharashtra, resulting in the arrest of an individual responsible for embezzling a substantial sum of Rs 18.66 crore from the government’s coffers. Dhiren Chandrakant Shah, the proprietor of a private enterprise known as Archana Impex, stands accused of orchestrating this fraudulent scheme by allegedly generating counterfeit GST invoices totaling Rs 18.66 crore.
In this elaborate scheme, Mr. Shah unlawfully claimed an input tax credit (ITC) amounting to Rs 8.80 crore for ineligible expenses and further availed ITC worth Rs. 9.86 crore without any legitimate supply of goods or services.
The arrest of Dhiren Chandrakant Shah took place on Friday and was conducted under the provisions of Section 69 of the CGST Act, 2017, citing a breach of Section 132.
This fraudulent invoice operation was successfully uncovered and dismantled by the dedicated officers of the CGST Palghar Commissionerate, Mumbai.
During the investigation, Mr. Shah divulged that he had initiated the operations of Archana Impex and M/s. Archana Enterprises under the directives of an individual named Pravin Devichand Rajawat.