Punjab Minister Harpal Singh Cheema

New Delhi: Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema has said an investigation by the state taxation department’s enforcement wing exposed a fake billing scam worth thousands of crores.

He said that it has been revealed that two firms dealing in gold prepared fake bills worth Rs 860 crore while 303 firms dealing in iron business made fake bills worth Rs 4,044 crore. Apart from this, 68 firms registered themselves under other names and engaged in fake billing of Rs 533 crore.

Mr Cheema, who also holds the Excise and Taxation department portfolio, said, “On inspection of a firm dealing in gold in Amritsar, the enforcement wing found that fake bills of gold worth Rs 336 crore were made by the said firm for sale and purchase of gold”.

He said that the registration of the two firms from which the said firm had purchased the gold had been canceled and no further purchase of gold was made by these firms.

Referring to a Ludhiana-based firm that indulged in similar manipulation in gold transactions, the state finance minister said that the said firm had bought and sold gold with fake bills worth Rs 424 crore. In this case, the registrations of the two firms from, which the company showed the purchase of gold have been cancelled, and in this case too, these firms had no record of purchasing any gold.

Mr Cheema, while giving information about the sale and purchase of forged iron worth Rs 4,044 crore by 303 firms, said that out of these firms, 11 are from Punjab, 86 from other states and 206 firms are registered with the Central Government.

He said that 217 firms registered with the Centre and Punjab had outstanding ITC of Rs 89.7 crore, which has been stopped by the Center and the state governments.

He said that in this case a total of fake ITC of Rs 707 crore was claimed.

He said that the state tax department has taken action against all the 11 firms and canceled or suspended their registration and the action is underway as per the law while the list of the remaining 206 firms has been given to the concerned authorities of the central government.

Meanwhile, while giving information about the case of 68 firms involved in fake billing registered in other persons’ names, he said the department has identified five people and filed an FIR against them in Ludhiana.

Fake billing of Rs 533 crore has been found in this case, “due to which nearly Rs 100 crore of fake ITC has been claimed”, he added.

Detailing the efforts being made by the state to curb tax evasion, the state finance minister said that the Punjab Tax Department is linking GST registration in the state with ‘Aadhaar-based biometric authentication so that the persons registering in the name of others can be identified and caught.