GST Act violation: HC dismisses advance bail pleas

Observing that the Central Goods and Services Act was enacted with the laudable object of “one country one tax”, the Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed the anticipatory bail applications filed by nine persons apprehending arrest under the provisions of the Act.
Justice Anand Venkatesh, in his order, said, “Where the accused persons are charged of violations of the CGST Act, involving colossal loss of revenue to the exchequer and the investigation is at a very nascent stage, prudence demands that this court should lay off its hands from investigation and allow complete independence to the prosecuting agency to proceed further with the investigation.” According to the prosecution, various organised firms and people have involved themselves in issuing fake invoices, without actual supply of goods or services, and are also receiving fake invoices without receipt of goods and availing input tax credit to cheat the exchequer.In the present case, the companies concerned had involved in issuing fake invoices without the supply of goods and received fake invoices without receipt of goods and thereby, committed offences under the CGST Act, 2017, it said.In the process, the exchequer had suffered huge loss, running to several thousand crores of rupees, it added.The department (Goods and Service Tax Network) must be given the complete independence to investigate the cases since it involved the national interest, the court said.
“This court, by entertaining the petitions and by imposing certain conditions, should not tie the hands of the department in proceeding further with the investigation since what has been unearthed till now is only the tip of the iceberg and there is a long way to go for it to find out how long these fake invoices have extended their tentacles,” the judge said.It was true that the entire issue was borne out by documents and once the petitioners co-operated for the investigation by submitting all the relevant documents, they should not be unnecessarily arrested, the judge said..