Punjab Tax Department Cracks Down on Massive Fake Billing Scams: Harpal Singh Cheema
–Exposes Fake Gold Transactions Worth Rs 860 Crore and Fake Iron Deals Worth Rs 4044 Crore
–5 Arrested, 11 Named in Fake Billing Case Involving 68 Firms Registered Under False Names
Chandigarh, July 26
Punjab’s Finance, Planning, Excise, and Taxation Minister, Advocate Harpal Singh Cheema, announced on Friday that the state tax department’s enforcement wing has uncovered significant fake billing scams amounting to thousands of crores. Two gold firms were found to have generated fake bills worth Rs 860 crore, while 303 iron firms were involved in fake billings totaling Rs 4044 crore. Additionally, 68 firms, registered under false names, engaged in fake billing worth Rs 533 crore.
At a press conference held at Punjab Bhawan, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema detailed these cases. He revealed that the enforcement wing’s inspection of a gold firm in Amritsar uncovered fake gold bills worth Rs 336 crore. The registrations of the two firms from which this firm claimed to have purchased the gold were canceled, as these firms had no records of any gold purchases.
In another case, a Ludhiana-based firm was found to have manipulated gold transactions, generating fake bills worth Rs 424 crore. The registrations of the two firms from which this firm claimed purchases were also canceled, and no records of gold purchases were found.
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The Finance Minister also provided information on the fake sale-purchase of iron worth Rs 4044 crore by 303 firms. Of these, 11 firms are registered in Punjab, 86 in other states, and 206 with the Central Government. The central and state governments blocked an outstanding ITC of Rs 89.7 crore out of a total fake ITC claim of Rs 707 crore. Action has been taken against all 11 firms registered in Punjab, with their registrations either canceled or suspended. The remaining firms’ details have been forwarded to the relevant central authorities.
Additionally, Minister Cheema reported on a case involving 68 firms engaged in fake billing under other people’s names. Five individuals have been identified and an FIR filed against them in Ludhiana, with a total of 11 individuals named. This scam involved bogus billing worth Rs 533 crore, resulting in nearly Rs 100 crore of fake ITC claims.
Minister Cheema highlighted the Punjab government’s efforts to prevent tax evasion, including linking GST registration with AADHAR-based biometric authentication to identify and catch individuals registering firms under false names. He noted the success of initiatives like the Tax Intelligence Unit (TIU) and the State Intelligence and Preventive Unit (SIPU), leading to a more than 13 percent growth in GST collection under Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann’s leadership, compared to only 6 percent under the previous government.
The Finance Minister was accompanied by Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Financial Commissioner (Taxation), Vikas Pratap, Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Varun Roojam, and Joint Commissioner (Taxation), Jaskaran Singh Brar, during the press conference.
