State sales tax department busts major evasion racket

[Avnish Jolly]

State sales tax department busts major evasion racket
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/State-sales-tax-department-busts-major-evasion-racket/articleshow/7135806.cms

Sandeep Ashar, TNN, Dec 21, 2010,

Read more: State sales tax department busts major evasion racket - The
Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/State-sales-tax-department-busts-major-evasion-racket/articleshow/7135806.cms#ixzz18kSbLRGn

MUMBAI: The state sales tax department has busted a major tax evasion
racket. The vigilance cell with the department stumbled upon a racket
involving bogus 'C' forms belonging to 21 states.

The C forms are normally used to claim tax concession when goods are
transported from one state to another. These are statutory declaration
forms issued by the purchaser under the central sales tax to avail a
concessional tax rate of 2% for the interstate transaction.

The forms are issued by tax assessing authorities for the state from
which the purchaser operates.

During a raid conducted earlier this month, the vigilance official
discovered three boxes full of bogus blank C forms, including those
from other states.

The boxes contained 711 bogus C forms in all. Of these, 145 belonged
to the state. There were 116 others belonging to Andhra Pradesh, 80 to
Haryana, 69 to Rajasthan, 58 to Gujarat, 45 to Uttar Pradesh. Also,
bogus C forms belonging to Jammu and Kashmir (35), Madhya Pradesh
(31), Punjab (23), Assam (23), Himachal Pradesh (13), Karnataka (12),
Goa (11), Tamilnadu (10), West Bengal (7), Chandigarh (6), Bihar (5),
Chattisgarh (3), Delhi (2) and Jharkhand (1). A senior official said
aids are on in different states simultaneously to further probe the
scam,.

Interestingly, Nashik, which was the epicenter of the Telgi
counterfeit stamp paper scam, is at the Centre of this controversy
too. "The box containing the bogus forms was recovered from the
residence of a plywood dealer at Bajrangwadi in Nashik. The sales tax
officials, who were accompanied by the local police while raiding the
dealer's residence, also found various rubber stamps, numbering
machines and a seal. "Some of the "C" forms had serial numbers, while
others didn't," another official said.

The vigilance team discovered the bogus form racket, while
investigating another tax-evasion scandal. The Nashik police have
already arrested two suspects identified as Mohammed Latif Solanki and
Gulam Mohammed Kadar in the new case. A countrywide probe across
various sectors is now on. A senior sales tax official said, "It was
important to probe the source of the paper used for the bogus forms. A
specific paper, the quality of which is known to only few paper mills,
is used in the case of genuine forms."