Rourkela: In a bizarre development Friday afternoon, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) department served a defaulter notice of Rs 70 crore to Sameer Jojo, who happens to be a pipefitter and resides at Haripur Basti under Basanti Colony area in Rourkela.
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The youth has been summoned by the Commercial Taxes and GST Enforcement Range Sambalpur for an alleged tax fraud.
The notice has mentioned Jojo as proprietor of Messers Sai Traders which is situated at Sector 18 in Rourkela, accusing him of tax fraud through input tax credit (ITC) by using fake invoices.
The invoices were drawn in the name of Madhumita Steel Industries Private Limited. The department has summoned Jojo to appear before the State Tax Officer of Enforcement Unit in Sambalpur.
On the other hand, Jojo refuted the charge on tax liability.
“I had handed over my personal documents to a person around six months ago, who promised me to engage at the steel plant here for a salary of Rs 12,000 per month. I had signed on some documents and a blank cheque for the purpose, but in vain,” Jojo expressed.
“GST officials visited my house a few days back and served me the defaulter notice. After getting the GST department notice I learnt that someone has formed a fake company in my name thereby using my personal documents,” the poor pipefitter sighed.
Notably, the GST officials did not find any business unit at the address on which the shop was registered, official sources said.
PNN