Immigration Fraud, Fake Billing & GST Losses

Recent investigations in Panjab have uncovered two significant immigration frauds in Ludhiana and Moga, amounting to over $331K. In Ludhiana, an immigration firm owner, Madhvi Malhotra, reported that four fraudsters from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh issued fake certificates of sponsorship for clients applying for UK visas, leading to a loss of $222K. In Moga, a couple and their aides, operating under the name Time to Fly, duped their employees and financiers by misusing salary accounts to show fake balances for Canadian visa applications, resulting in a fraud of $108K. Additionally, in Khanna, a travel agent was booked for allegedly sending a young man to Armenia instead of Germany after taking $11.3K. On 26 Jul, Panjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema said an investigation by the Tax Department’s Enforcement Wing has uncovered fake billing scams worth thousands of crore. Two firms dealing in gold were found to have generated fake bills of $102M, while 303 firms dealing in iron were involved in fake billings of $481M. 68 other firms were found to have engaged in fake billing of $63M after getting their firms registered under fake names. The Federation of Punjab Small Industries Association (FOPSIA) claims to have compiled a report to support and prove Goods and Service Tax (GST) evasions in Panjab to the tune of $2.3B. 'The total GST evasion detected in Punjab was $497M till November 2023 and the recovered amount was just $140M with 61 arrests made.