CA GST Fraud

A Vapi-based CA (chartered accountant) has been held for duping a Navsari-based builder by allegedly misappropriating his GST (goods and services tax) payments to the tune of ₹63 lakh.

The builder, Smit Patel, had transferred the money to the CA’s bank accounts between 2019 and 2023 for GST, Income Tax, and TDS (tax deducted at source) payments on behalf of his company, Shraddha Construction. However, the CA, Kanti Patel, allegedly did not transfer the money to the department and instead issued fake challans.

GST fraud of the CA

Initially, in 2019-20, Smit transferred ₹3 lakh in two different accounts of Kanti to pay the outstanding GST amount.

Later, he transferred an additional ₹29.58 lakh in 2020-21, ₹17.43 lakh in 2021-22, and ₹13.17 lakh in 2022-23, surmounting up to a total of ₹63.45 lakh.

In 2023, when Smit received a summons from the GST department for non-payment of tax, he informed the CA, who assured him that the matter will be taken care of. The CA even issued four challans to Smit as payment documentation.

However, the challans provided by Kanti for the GST payment were found to be bogus when verified on the GST portal.

Kanti agreed to pay the pending amount himself and even signed an agreement.

On Oct 31, 2023, the Surat GST department sent an email summons to Smit, asking him to appear in person regarding the pending payment.

Upon approaching Kanti, he labelled the summons notification as “insignificant”.

Regardless, Smit reached the GST office and learned from the officials that Kanti had not paid the pending amount, and the issued challans were fake.

Following this, a complaint was filed against Kanti at the Vapi GIDC police station. The police registered a case in this matter, and have nabbed the accused CA.

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