NT Reporter
Panaji
Unidentified persons allegedly duped the state government by falsely claiming input tax credit (ITC) to the tune of over Rs 3.51 crore.
Input tax credit is a system under goods and services tax (GST) where registered businesses can claim credit for the tax paid on their business purchases (inputs) to reduce the tax they owe on their sales (output tax), preventing ‘tax on tax’ and ensuring tax is paid only on value added at each stage
The economic offences cell (EOC) of the Goa police have registered an FIR under the Bharatiya
Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) in this connection against unknown accused on charges of cheating, cheating by personation, forgery, using forged document or electronic record as genuine and also for identity theft and cheating by personation under the
IT Act.
The duping occurred from April 30, 2024 to July 20, 2025.
The complaint in this regard was lodged by Sophia Lawrence E Vaz from the office of state
tax officer, Bicholim.
Referring to the case, the police said the accused hatched a criminal conspiracy and fraudulently created a GST registration number through online GST portal by personating as Laxmi Raju Parit.
Thereafter, the accused filed GST returns through the portal using the said number and falsely claimed ITC amounting to Rs 3,51,99,349 while declaring a tax liability of Rs 3,40,44,418, the
police said.
The accused caused loss to the government revenue by setting off the said tax liability against the fictitious ITC on the turnover disclosed.
Based on the information received at EOC on January 16, the police registered the case under sections 318, 319, 336, 340 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023.
The police have also added sections 66-C, 66-D under the Information Technology Act 2000 and Information Technology Amendment Act 2008.
The police are further investigating the case.
