New Delhi, Feb 10 (PTI) GST officers have arrested one person for fraudulently availing and passing on input tax credit (ITC) of Rs 376 crore by issuing fake bills without actual supply of goods, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) Gurugram Zonal Unit has arrested one Ritesh Aggarwal on charges of passing and availing fake ITC while operating dummy, fake and non-existent firms and encashing this unduly availed ITC through IGST refund mode by showing export of cigarettes, the ministry said.

Aggarwal, a resident of Bahadurgarh, Haryana and the proprietor of SR Impex was the de-facto controller of another firm, SR International.

In the supply chain of this firm, six other dummy firms by the names of Joles Trading Co, AS Traders, AR Traders, Om Traders, Capital India & S.M enterprises -- all controlled by Agarwal -- were found during investigation.

"In all these firms, Ritesh Aggarwal had availed and passed on ITC of Rs 376 crore by means of billing without goods. Ritesh Aggarwal was sanctioned refund of Rs 37.13 crore from the department," it added.

The investigation spanned multiple locations in Delhi and Haryana and based on documentary evidence and statement recorded of many suppliers of these firms, it was ascertained that Aggarwal is a key person in orchestrating this racket of making fake/non-existent/dummy firms and wrongly availment and passing on ITC of Rs 376 crore, the ministry said.

Aggarwal was arrested on February 9 and is currently in judicial custody.

In a separate case earlier, a show cause notice for demand of Rs 26.53 crore was issued to Aggarwal for similar modus operandi of operating fake firm, SS & Co and availing and passing on fake ITC.

"Further, Ritesh Aggarwal, who also adopts the alias of Ravi Gupta, was found to be accused in the show cause notice dated March 1, 2019. issued by the DGRI (Directorate General of Revenue Intelligence) wherein fraudulent drawback was availed on imported areca nuts by forging the Certificate of Origins," the ministry said.

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