Sub: Creation of ITC Investigation Unit

It has been found that there are several instances of tax evasion through false and exaggerated claims of input tax credit under the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, by means of bogus circular trading and fictitious transactions involving fake tax invoices, or tax invoices issued without any corresponding transfer of property in goods, or the like. Besides contravention of the provisions relating to claim of input tax credit, in some cases there have also been commission of offences under the said Act as also under the appropriate provisions of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. So it has been found necessary to create a specialized Unit to investigate into alleged cases of false claims of input tax credit, cases of transactions relating to excess claim of input tax credit, and cases of issue of tax invoices by dealers in contravention of the provisions of the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, and take appropriate actions as may be deemed necessary for the purposes of the Act.

With the above objective in mind it has been decided to constitute a dedicated 'ITC INVESTIGATION UNIT' in the Office of the Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, West Bengal, at 14, Beliaghata Road, Kolkata – 700 015.

Functions: The ITC Investigation Unit will enquire into and investigate instances of significant tax evasion through false and exaggerated claims of input tax credit under the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, by means of bogus circular trading, or fictitious transactions involving fake tax invoices, or tax invoices issued without any corresponding transfer of property in goods, cases of issue of tax invoices in contravention of the provisions of the said Act, or the like, and to take appropriate actions as may be deemed necessary for the purposes of the said Act. For this purpose the Unit may also seek appropriate assistance from the Data Analysis Wing and the Cyber Crime Cell of the Directorate.

Jurisdiction & Powers: An Officer placed in the Unit shall have jurisdiction throughout the whole of West Bengal and shall have all the powers as may be exercised under the West Bengal Value Added Tax Act, 2003, by a person of similar designation for effective discharge of his functions.

Setup: The Unit shall presently be headed by a Joint Commissioner of Sales Tax and shall have other Officials as felt necessary to discharge its functions.

The Unit shall be under administrative control of Special Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, West Bengal. This order shall come into force with effect from 01.09.2014.

Sd/-

(Binod Kumar)

Commissioner, Sales Tax,

West Bengal.