Issued false GST notice of Rs 1.56 crore, says West Bengal native in Ernakulam

A West Bengal native, who runs a lottery stall in Nedumbassery, has claimed that he has been falsely slapped with a GST notice seeking payment of Rs 1.56 crore.

The migrant worker, Bidyut Sheikh, says that he is a victim of identity theft and fraud. “I received the notice at my house in Murshidabad. It seems like someone took my photo from Facebook and is using my PAN card to commit fraud. It seems like there are five GST accounts under my PAN, with companies registered in places like Rajasthan, Bengaluru, Chennai, Coimbatore etc. It is a huge fraud. I don’t know what these companies are,” said Sheikh.

Sheikh said that the notice came from the GST office Chhattisgarh. He added that he went to the GST offices in Kerala, but they advised him to check with the GST unit which issued the notice. “I have a wife and two small children back home in Murshidabad. It is Eid and I was not even able to send money home. Now I am running behind this GST issue,” he said.

Sheikh said that he got a similar notice in 2019 from the Coimbatore office of the GST department. “I made them understand that it was a mistake and they assured me that the problem is solved. Back then it was a bill of Rs 66 lakh,” he said.

He said that he gave his PAN number for starting an account in a private bank as well as a shop in Perumbavoor. “I only had a copy of my PAN card with me and went to the shop to get an original. It is possible that it got leaked from there,” he said. Sheikh said that he has been working in Kerala for over nearly two decades doing manual labour before starting the lottery kiosk.

Source from: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/issued-false-gst-notice-of-rs-1-56-crore-says-west-bengal-native-in-ernakulam/articleshowprint/129737683.cms