First arrest under GST evasion in AP State

Vijayawada: The officials of the State Commercial Tax department (State Goods and Services Tax) unearthed a case of massive SGST evasion which is first of its kind in the State and arrested a person on the charges of evading tax of Rs 2.6 crore.

Chief Commissioner of State Tax Piyush Kumar said in a statement here on Tuesday that on reliable information the Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Gajuwaka circle in Visakhapatnam under the guidance of the Joint Commissioner arrested one Duddu Sekhar, proprietor of Sekhar Traders and Venkata Sai Traders on February 15. The accused was produced on February 16 before the District and Sessions Judge-cum-Special Economic Offences Court, who sent him to the judicial remand in Visakhapatnam central prison.

The Chief Commissioner said that the accused misused online e-way bills for an amount of Rs 14.4 crore and evaded a tax of Rs. 2.6 crore. "The entire transactions seem to be bogus as per the online e-way bill data, since they supplied and received goods from the same dealers in Telangana State," he said.He said that the accused committed an offence under the provisions of Section-132 and 69 of SGST Act, 2017.

Piyush Kumar said that further investigation into the case was under progress and action would be initiated to recover the taxes evaded. "On verification of records by the tax officials it has been noticed that a few more dealers were involved in the issue and the total tax evasion is expected to be around Rs 10 crore," he said.