GST fraud: Identity thieves on the prowl, poor duped into setting up shell companies
A group which is active across the state has been passing on credentials of unsuspecting low-income group individuals, mostly from remote corners, to individuals who would allegedly use the data in setting up shell companies to evade tax, including goods and services tax (GST), senior ofcials of the revenue department under the nance ministry said.
Last Friday, a labourer from Domjur in Howrah led a police complaint alleging that fraudsters used his documents to set up a shell company and evade Rs.7 crore in GST.
The shocking discovery came when a six-member revenue department team from the ministry of nance arrived at Kartick Ruidas’s house for a search and seizure operation, believing he owned a company called KD Enterprise that had allegedly evaded crores in GST payments.
Ruidas, who works as a labourer at a factory manufacturing laboratory products in Howrah, told the investigators that he earns around Rs.10,000 a month and is not the owner of any company.
“There have been several cases where the individuals have remained completely unaware that their PAN card, Aadhaar, or electricity bills have been used to set up shell companies until our teams reached their houses as a part of an investigation for alleged tax evasion,” a senior ofcial of the nance ministry said.
“These individuals usually hand over the documents to agents either for a job, a bank loan or some other purpose. The loans or jobs never reach them, but the documents get used in setting up shell companies,” said the ofcial.
Sources in the nance ministry said two years back, the probe team had arrested one of the kingpins of such a racket after tracking him down through a maze of sub-agents and agents who went around parts of rural Howrah and Hooghly collecting copies of PAN cards, Aadhaar cards and electricity bills from individuals to set up shell companies.
