Page 13 - Banking Finance September 2019

GST UPDATE

Abolish GST on maintenance Rs 60 Cr GST fraud busted in Punjab
charges of apartments: Punjab’s Department of Excise and Taxation has busted an alleged GST billing
scam in Patiala, which involved Rs 60 crore.
VARWA urges to ministry Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner-
Union Minister of State for Housing cum-Director (Investigation) Navdeep Kaur
and Urban Affairs Bhinder said that the accused has been iden-
Hardeep Singh tified as a businessman in Patiala’s Khanauri
Puri has been Mandi dealing in iron and scrap. “After fol-
urged by the lowing due process of law and conducting de-
Visakhapanam tailed enquires, the accused, who is proprietor of Ganpati Motor Store, has been
Apartment Resi- arrested,” she.
dents’ Welfare
Association (VARWA) to abolish GST “The owner of the firm used to procure fake GST invoices of iron and scrap from
on maintenance charges of apart- Delhi without physical delivery of goods. It has also been detected that some of
ment complexes, saying that it is the vehicles used in the transportation of goods were found to be scooters and
adding to the burden of residents. motorcycles. A total of 945 vehicles were shown to have transported iron and
scrap goods from Delhi to Khanauri Mandi, whereas after verification it was
VARWA general secretary B.B. found that only 67 vehicles were shown to have passed through a Rohtak-based
Ganesh said that according to the toll plaza. The verification of these 67 vehicles revealed that these vehicles had
Finance Ministry’s recent clarifica-
actually not passed through the toll plaza and only fake toll plaza receipts had
tion, apartment owners need to pay
been generated,” said Ms Kaur, adding that the fact has been confirmed by toll
18% GST of 18% their monthly main- plaza authorities.
tenance charges to the Residents’
Welfare Association (RWA) exceed Rs “In this case the accused was creating bogus input tax credit running into crores
7,500 per month and even other- of rupees and was further passing on to various dealers of Punjab,” she said.
wise, the RWA should pay GST at Ms. Kaur said investigation was on to identify other unscrupulous people involved
that rate, if its turnover exceeds Rs in the scam. “We also plan to launch a campaign against dealers, traders in-
20 lakh per annum. volved in cases of tax evasion,” the excise official said.
Maintenance charges are collected
by RWAs for meeting common ex- Fake 'GST Call' siphons off Rs 7.8 lakh from Delhi Busi-
penses such as wages to security nessman
guards, sweepers, cleaners, garden- Rs 7.8 lakh has been siphoned off from a Delhi-based businessman’s bank ac-
ers, telephone and intercom service,
electricity charges, municipal water, count as he fell for Bluff 'GST Call'. The person
house-keeping, repairs and mainte- filed a complaint at the Preet Vihar police sta-
nance and etc., he said. tion. A case under relevant sections of fraud
has been registered at the Preet Vihar police
“The RWAs pay GST on common ex- station.
penses through the telecom service
provider, intercom provider, man In his statement, he said that he had received
power agency and etc. Levying it on a call from someone claiming to be the cus-
maintenance charges leads to tomer care executive of his bank. The caller
double payment by apartment own- had told him that the GST number of his company had not been updated in the
ers. GST on maintenance charges is bank records and fetched for the necessary documents. The victim fell for the
taxing internal services of apart- bluff and mailed all the ‘necessary’ documents to a given email ID.
ments many of which are supposed The victim later checked his bank balance and realised that lakhs of money had
to be provided by civic bodies or gov- been withdrawn from his account without his knowledge.
ernment departments. But, the
RWAs are providing them,” Mr. The culprits had allegedly submitted a written application on the fake letter-
Ganesh contended. head of the victim’s company to change the registered mobile number.

BANKING FINANCE | SEPTEMBER | 2019 | 13