Team News Riveting
Bhopal, August 12
A leading cement manufacturing company with its facility in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna district had come under the scanner for evading Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The GST intelligence officials had unearthed GST evasion of Rs 17 crore by a major cement manufacturer in Satna. It had arrested one of its directors, according to an official statement issued on Wednesday.
The team from the intelligence wing also conducted multiple searches in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh from August 5 to August 11 at various premises belonging to the cement manufacturer located at Maihar, Satna and their registered dealers and distributors, it said.
Searches have indicated that substantial quantities of cement and clinker have been supplied clandestinely without payment of Goods & Service Tax (GST) in the states of MP and UP, the statement issued by the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI), Bhopal zonal unit.
The searches were conducted at Maihar, Satna, Allahabad, Kushinagar, Agra, Kanpur and New Delhi. In all, 28 searches were conducted during the one-week long operation, it said.
During the factory search on Saturday, the team of DGGI officials was surrounded by a mob of people who threatened and interfered with the official proceedings, the statement said.
During the operation it has been revealed that more than 400,000 tons of limestone has been procured in excess of what has been declared in the formal records of the company during the period from January till July, 2020, the statement said.
By suppressing the procurement of limestone, the company appears to have manufactured cement and clinker which has been supplied clandestinely to various dealers and units in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh without the payment of the GST, it said.
One of the directors was arrested today under the provisions of Central GST Act, 2017. Another director did not join the investigations despite being summoned for three times, the officials said.
He produced a medical opinion regarding Covid-19 symptoms. However, he had absconded and the search was on.
The absconding director had been earlier convicted for offence under Indian Penal Code in the coal block allocation case by the Delhi District court in the year 2017, it said, without citing further details.
