Two officials among 11 arrested for Rs 200 crore VAT evasion

Fatehgarh Sahib, Oct 19 (UNI) Police have arrested 11 people in a case of VAT evasion of over Rs 200 crore against an iron trader of a Mandi Gobindgarh-based industrial firm.

Police intensified its investigations after registering a case under sections 465, 467, 471 of the IPC and 65, 66, 70 of the Information Technology Act on the complaint of Fatehgarh Sahib Assistant Excise and Taxation Commissioner (AETC) against the iron trader, sources said.

Sources said after interrogating the trader, police arrested other people involved in the case.

According to the complaint, the trader allegedly sent goods to other states but he did not pay tax, committing evasion of Rs 10.13 crore VAT by showing fake entries, the sources added.

On investigations, more cases of tax evasion and involvement of officials in tampering of Excise and Taxation department computers was discovered.

Sources said the accused even hacked the password of the department computers due to which trucks loaded with steel were shown as tax free material in computer records.

Possibility of other senior officials involved in the scam could not be ruled out.

Fatehgarh Sahib SP (Headquarter) Preetpal Singh Virk, who was investing into the case, said the police were yet to complete the investigation.

Earlier, an illegal consignment of pig-iron registering tax-evasion to the tune of Rs 3 crore was found at Batla recently.

UNI