The GST intelligence officials have identified a Rs 300 crore tax evasion by a cigarette manufacturer in Indore. Kishore Wadhwani, owner of the Ellora Tobacco Company and known as the Gutkha King, has been accused of liming the government of Rs 105 crore in GST by trading around Rs 300 crore.
The Director General of the GST Intelligence Department (DGGI) said the authorities inspected the cigarette factory premises last week. There was a secret door at the back of the factory. Through which unaccounted raw materials were brought in and goods were shipped. Which was done illegally. The investigating agency also found that the generator set was used to run the machines.
The trick was to power the factory with local generator so as to reduce state electricity boards power consumption to come clean under the radar of authorities. In a statement issued by DGGI Bhopal, the Additional Director General said that the investigation revealed that from April, 2018 to May, 2020 alone, a major tax / duty / cess worth about Rs 105 crore had been evaded. In another case, a financial investigation into the Kishore.
Wadhwani owns a newspaper and during the raids, the agency also seized several trucks with media stickers, allegedly used to transport tobacco products during the lockdown.The raid also disclosed malpractise in the media house ,where he was publishing 1.2-1.5 million copies of the newspaper every day, while in fact only 4,000-4,000 copies were published per day.
The Congress party has raised questions after Kishore Wadhwani’s arrest. “Is it true that Gutka King was patronized by a senior officer in Indore … Did DRI find that more than 70 freight vehicles were given passes during lockdown, @ChouhanShivraj Are # officers fighting or doing business with Corona,” Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha tweeted.
The investigating teams were allegedly attacked by a group affiliated to a prominent party during the search at Wadhwani’s Indore residence and a separate case has been filed in this connection.
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