In a tax raid, a UP businessman's home was raided and 150 crore (and counting)
The funds were linked to the shipment of goods using forged invoices and without creating e-way bills
Vivek Johri, Chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), informed news agency ANI on Friday that tax raids at locations associated to Piyush Jain, a Kanpur businessman involved in the perfume industry, resulted in the recovery of more than Rs 150 crore in cash.
"This is the biggest recovery in the history of the CBIC. No arrest has taken place so far," he said.
Two mountains of cash were piled into two big wardrobes at Mr Jain's home, according to photos from the operation. Paper covers were used to wrap the bundles and yellow tape was used to attach them. There are about 30 such bundles seen in each photo.
Officials from the CBIC, the IT department, and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Intelligence unit were photographed squatting on a flowery sheet placed in the middle of a room, surrounded by more cash piles and three note-counting machines.
Raids on numerous locations in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Mumbai began on Thursday at a plant owned by M/s Trimurti Fragrances in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, which produces the Shikhar brand of pan masala and other scented tobacco products.
Raids were also conducted out at the offices and godowns of a carrier, M/s Ganpati Road Carriers, which is also based in Kanpur, before the action turned to Piyush Jain's location.
"Based on intelligence inputs, the residential premises of partners of M/s Odochem Industries... who were supplying perfumery compounds... was also searched," the GST department's statement said.
"During the search proceedings at the residential premises, huge amounts of cash, wrapped in paper, has been found. The process of counting of cash has been initiated with the help of officials of State Bank of India (Kanpur), which may continue till (evening of) 24 December..." the statement said.
"The total amount of cash is expected to be in excess of ₹ 150 crores," it further said.
The money was linked to a goods transporter's dispatch of items via fraudulent invoices and without e-way bills, according to GST officials. These fictitious invoices were fabricated in the names of fictitious businesses.
More than 200 such invoices - produced without GST payments - were discovered in four trucks inside the trader's warehouse, each for $50,000.
