The Guwahati Zonal Unit of Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) conducted joint searches at 28 business premises in the state of Arunachal Pradesh which were engaged in the production and clearance of wood based articles.
A total of 28 wood based industries in Pasighat, Mebo, Chowkham, Medo, Ruksin and Likabali were searched and large amounts of incriminating documents regarding mis-declaration and non payment of GST have been seized from these industries, a spokesman of the DGGI said.
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The DGGI is a premier Pan-India Intelligence Organization in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India which investigates cases of evasion of Central Excise, Service Tax, GST and commercial and economic frauds.
Officers from the field CGST and Customs Commissionerates, State Police and CRPF assisted in the joint search operation.
“Many of these wood based industries are not registered under GST and are not paying GST collected on sale of their finished goods. Other units which were registered were grossly mis-declaring and under-valuing their sales and the turnovers shown in their monthly GSTR-3B returns,” he said.
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Wood based industries are evasion prone and this search operation was conducted in order to bring to book evaders in this sector. Majority of products of the wood based industries are classified in chapter 44 of the erstwhile Central Excise Tariff act, 1985 and GST Tariff Act, 2017 and these items are taxed in both Central excise and in GST.
During central excise these products of wood like sawdust, wood waste and scrap, pellets, poles, pilings and posts, veneer, sheets for plywood, were charged at 12.5 percent Central Excise duty. In the GST regime too all these goods along with sawn timber attract GST at rates of 5-18 per cent.