By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR/JAJPUR: Manas Ranjan Pahi, General Manager (Finance) and Surendra Kumar Patra, Assistant General Manager (Taxation) of Maithan Ispat Ltd., Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur, a manufacturing unit of articles of iron and steel, were arrested by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence, Bhubaneswar Zonal Unit over their alleged involvement in GST fraud of Rs 23 crore. The dept ridden Maithan Ispat has been taken over by Rita Singh owned MESCO Steel, sources said on Monday.
As per a press release of the agency, Maithan Ispat Ltd., Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur, a manufacturing unit of articles of iron and steel, was found to be involved in availing fictitious Input Tax Credit (ITC) between April, 2018 and November, 2018 without due support of relevant documents like invoices.
Search was conducted at the factory and office premises of the company and it was detected that it had taken ineligible ITC of Rs 23 crore in GSTR-3B returns for the month of April, 2018 to November, 2018, and utilised the same for payment of GST liability, thereby causing a loss of Rs 23 crore to the government exchequer.
Further investigation revealed that two employees of the company– Manas Ranjan Pahi, General Manager (Finance) and Surendra Kumar Patra, Assistant General Manager (Taxation)– were actively involved in the manipulation of these returns.
Accordingly, Patra was arrested in Bhubaneswar and Padhi was apprehended in Kolkata on January 2. Both were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days after being produced before court. All efforts are being made to recover the government dues alongwith interest and penalty, the press release said.
