The Directorate General of GST Intelligence’s (DGGI) day-long search this week at a leading pan masala factory in Kanpur led to the discovery of over ₹150 crore cash stashed at separate places by one of its suppliers in the city’s Anandpuri locality, people aware of the matter said.
The people said much of the cash has been counted and State Bank of India’s help has also been sought in doing so. A DGGI team carried out raids at the factory as well as offices of transporter it hired to supply its products. The premises of the supplier was raided on Thursday morning. Four currency counting machines have since been working non-stop to count the cash, which was hidden including in lockers.
The pan masala manufacturer and the transporter were allegedly involved in transporting goods under the cover of fake invoices without generating e-way bills. According to DGGI, the transporter generated multiple invoices in name of non-existent firms. All the invoices were below ₹50,000 for one truck-load to avoid the generation of the bills. The DGGI team intercepted four trucks for which the invoices were generated outside the factory premises.
At least 200 fake invoices used for transportation of goods without payment of GST have been recovered from the warehouse of the transporter, DGGI said.