MM TAX CLUB

In one of the cases, two accused were arrested on the ground that they were found actively involved in the racket of availing and utilizing fake/ fraudulent ITC under the name and style of a firm, by misusing the identity of a Rickshaw Driver. The accused had undertaken transactions in the firm with the sole intention of availing inadmissible credit and utilizing the same without any actual movement of goods/ services.

The total fraudulent ITC availed in the name of the said firm is Rs. 100.63 Crores and ITC amounting to Rs 75.36 Crores has been passed on to various non-existent/ fake/suspicious entities. The accused persons were handling the records and return filing of the said firm and were found to be in possession of other incriminating documents pertaining to the said firm. Both the persons had violated the provisions of Section 132 of CGST Act, 2017 and were accordingly arrested under Section 69 of the CGST Act, 2017, by the officers of Thane Rural CGST & C. Ex. Commissionerate, on 23rd March, 2022. Both the accused were produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai on 24th March, 2022 and both were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.

In the second case, one person was arrested on 24thMarch, 2022 on the ground that the accused was found actively involved in availing fake/ fraudulent ITC passed on by various non-existent/bogus/fraudulent entities amounting to Rs. 7.55 Crores without actual movement of goods or services. The said amount of fraudulent/fake ITC availed is likely to increase during further investigation. The accused was produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai on 25th March, 2022 and was remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.

Further investigation in both the cases is in process.

The Income Tax Department carried out a search and seizure operation on 14.03.2022 on a popular chain of educational institutes, running several schools and colleges at multiple locations in India and abroad. The search operation covered more than 25 premises spread over locations in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

During the search, several incriminating evidences including hard copy documents and digital data have been found and seized, which reveal that substantial funds have been siphoned-off from the Trusts for the personal benefit of the group’s promoters and their family members, in violation of provisions relating to claim of exemption by the Trusts under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

The modus operandi of siphoning-off the funds from the Trusts includes debiting of bogus expenses in the guise of purchase of goods/services from various dummy companies and LLPs owned by the promoters, their family members, and some of their trusted employees. It was unearthed that no actual goods/services were delivered/rendered by these entities and the same have been corroborated by the employees in their deposition. The money so siphoned-off has been utilised for investment in acquiring benami properties and making unfair payments.

During the search, evidences of about two dozen immovable properties located in Maharashtra, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu have also been gathered which are either benami properties or not disclosed in the respective returns of Income. These properties have been placed under provisional attachment.

The search also revealed evidences of borrowings on Hundi aggregating to Rs. 55 crore, and their repayment in cash in the form of discharged Promissory Notes/Bills of Exchange, which were found & seized.

The search action has resulted in the seizure of unaccounted cash of Rs. 27 lakh and jewellery worth Rs. 3.90 crore.

Further investigations are in progress.

The Government has created a grievance redressal platform namely Centralised Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) accessible at https://pgportal.gov.in. Any citizen can lodge his/her grievances pertaining to the Central Ministries/ Departments /State Governments / Union Territories (UTs) through this platform. Every Ministry / Department in Government of India and State Government/UT have access to this system and grievances are resolved by the concerned Ministries/ Departments/ States/ UTs. A total of 81000 grievances officers and 792 Appellate/Sub Appellate authorities have been mapped in the CPGRAMS. A timeframe of 45 days has been prescribed to dispose of a grievance. In case redressal is not possible within the prescribed time-frame an interim reply shall be given to the citizen. About 1,17,06,366 Grievances have been  disposed of in CPGRAMS from  01.01.2015 to 28.02.2022.

This information was given by Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, Dr. JItendra Singh in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

Registration Advisory No. 07/2022 dated 23-03-2022

Communications have been received from field formations about passing judicial / appeal orders against cancellation orders, passed suo motu by the Range officers u/s 29 of the CGST Act, 2017. It has also come to notice that taxpayers in certain cases, had obtained orders from High Courts / appellate authorities to restore registrations cancelled on their own request. Since the functionality to implement the orders online was not ready, a temporary mechanism to restore cancelled registrations was created in the back-end and an advisory vide e-mail dated 16^th June ’2021 (copy enclosed), was issued in this regard.

2. Now, a functionality in the name of ‘Restoration of Cancelled Registration’ has been developed and deployed w.e.f. 23.03.2022, to facilitate the jurisdictional Range officers to restore the registrations in pursuance of judicial/ appellate orders.

3. This functionality would cover both the cancellations viz.. ordered suo motu by Range officers against which appeal orders were obtained without applying for revocation through form REG-21, and cancelled on the request from the taxpayers. A step by step guide along with indicative screens is annexed herewith (Annexure ‘A’) for guidance of the officers using the functionality.

4. Necessary permission to operate this functionality is being enabled for the Jurisdictional Range Officers.

5. As per the contractual obligations, the vendor (Wipro) is required to rectify the defects/ errors/ bugs noticed, if any, in the functionality within 30 days of its deployment to production. It is, therefore, requested that this advisory may be circulated among all the concerned officers for their guidance, and issues, if any, in performance of the functionality may immediately be reported to cbicmitra.helpdesk@icegate.gov.in for necessary resolution.

Guidelines/Revision for “Work From Home”

With reference to the above subject, this office has issued orders from time to time regarding ‘Work From Office" aligning the same with the Government of Maharashtra Guidelines regarding the pandemic, as there is no limit prescribed in Rule 43 of SEZ Rule 2006. Accordingly, the Specified Officers have permitted the clearance of goods for this purpose in terms of Rule 50 & 51.

Reference is invited to latest guidelines issued by Maharashtra Govt. vide letter no. DMU/2020/CR/DisM- I dated 01.08.2022.

It is seen that the condition on account of Covid-19 has improved a lot in the State and accordingly most of the restrictions have been relaxed by the State Government. All govt. / Private offices, gyms, cinemas, schools have started operating.

However, the Trade, particularly IT/ ITES units have requested for more time to start the work from office. Such requests were also made during the meeting held with units at Pune cluster on 15.03.2O22, though all of them agreed to start Work from office in phased manner.

Accordingly, it is decided that w.e.f 01.07.2022, the units should work from office with at least 50% capacity with double dose of vaccination and ensuring Covid- 19 protocol. The equipment/goods taken out may be brought back to SEZ units in a phased manner. Furthermore, w.e.f 01.09.2022, the units should function with 100% capacity from office complying with the guidelines issued by the State Govt. and Central Govt., if any.

All Specified Officers are instructed to keep above directions in mind, while exercising their rights in terms of Rule SO & 61, so that no hardship is caused to the Trade.

The above instructions may be modified / amended in future as per the existing conditions in the State of Maharashtra.