HYDERABAD, OCT 11 : Telangana Commercial Taxes Department on Wednesday claimed it has unearthed a huge amount of Rs.45.67 Crores of fraudulent GST refunds taken by 7 tax payers, who have floated certain firms showing the fictitious activity of manufacturing electric bikes.

One of the key persons involved in the process of taking fraudulent refunds Vemireddy Ramakrishna Reddy was arrested today and produced before the Court for Economic Offences, Nampally and remanded to Judicial custody, the Commercial Taxes Department said in a release here.

Under the leadership of State Commercial Taxes (CT) Commissioner Dr.T.K.Sreedevi, the officers found that seven fictitious firms ( Shiva Sai Enterprises, Magnum Electric bikes , Yoka Electric bikes, Apex Electric bikes, Grow more electric bikes, Supriya electric bikes and Vinardh Automobiles Pvt Ltd) were floated with an intention to take the GST refund fraudulently under inverse tax structure.

It was shown by the fraudsters that the spare parts were purchased from some fictitious firms that are being registered at Delhi and the sales of electric bikes were shown in the state of Telangana, the release said..

Later, on verification by the department, it was revealed that there was no manufacturing activity and there was no movement of goods from Delhi to Hyderabad.

Investigation against such fraudulent firms was already initiated and efforts are going on to arrest the culprits.

Investigation against other persons involved in the network of fraudulent refunds is being initiated by the department with the help of task force police.

The investigation was carried out by K. Geetha, Joint Commissioner of State Tax, Madhapur Division and her team under supervision of CT Commissioner.(UNI)