Three traders of FMCG arrested for evasion of 75 crore in GST Three traders involved in retail and wholesale trade of FMCG in Madurai were arrested for non-payment of approximately 75 crore GST.

The officers of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence, Madurai regional unit, conducted search operations on 11-May, at the residence cum business premises of certain traders & retailers, on intelligence that they indulged in supplying goods without issuing proper invoices.

These firms adopted a modus operandi involving frequent deletion of data in the estimate-generating software and only maintaining invoices for amounts deposited in the banks.

While B2B invoices were issued as per the requirement of other traders, the employees of the units generated random invoices, as per the directions of the accused, without any basis of sale, to match the remaining amount deposited in banks in the GST billing software.

Any cash received in hand or over the counter was never accounted for in the GST returns. All estimates generated which included actual business to consumer (B2C) sales were deleted with the intention to evade tax.

The number of entries deleted in the software was identified by the forensic expert and software provider and the amounts deleted were recovered by systems analysts.

The supplies without bill amounted to 440 crore in preliminary verification resulting in non-payment of tax by the said units to the tune of 75 crore approximately, said a statement.