Bhubaneswar: The Directorate General of GST Intelligence here claimed to have arrested two officials of a private company in Jajpur on charges of Rs 23-crore fraud.
“Manas Ranjan Pahi, general manager (Finance), and Surendra Kumar Patra, assistant general manager (Taxation), of M/s Maithan Ispat Limited in Jajpur’s Kalinga Nagar, have been arrested January 2, produced in court and sent to a 14-day judicial custody,” read a note issued by the Bhubaneswar unit of Directorate General of GST Intelligence.
According to the case details, the agency claimed to have found the private firm availing fictitious Input Tax Credit from April to November 2018 without relevant documents.
“Accordingly, search was carried out at the firm’s factory and office. And it was detected that the company has taken ineligible ITC of Rs 23 crore in their GSTR-3B returns from April to November 2018 and has utilised the same for payment of their GST liability, causing a loss of Rs 23 crore to the government exchequer,” the note pointed out, adding that the arrested officials were involved in manipulation of the returns.