Kerala and Karnataka tax officials have busted a nationwide cartel involved in fake Goods and Services Tax (GST) registrations.
In a June 22 operation, the intelligence unit of the Kerala State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) department in Kanhangad, in collaboration with other Kerala SGST intelligence units and tax intelligence units in Karnataka, uncovered the existence of 30 fake registrants spread across the country, operating under benami firms.
The illicit operation had an estimated total business turnover of ₹850 crore recorded between October 2022 and June 2023 across India, the Kerala SGST department said on Friday, terming its magnitude ‘‘staggering.’‘ Falsified invoices for areca nuts and fabricated e-way bills were systematically generated to conceal the illicit transportation of goods from Karnataka to the Gutkha manufacturing states in North India.