The Andhra Pradesh State Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (APSDRI) imposed a heavy penalty of ₹34 crore for tax evasion on companies involved in the alleged A.P. Fibernet scam.
M/s Fastlane Information Technologies Private Ltd got a demand for tax along with interest and imposing of penalty for violation of the provisions of APGST Act, 2017 from the APSDRI. M/s Fastlane was ordered to pay ₹34,01,43,881 (₹34.01 crore) towards tax, interest and penalty.
GST is indirect tax, i.e. the seller has to collect the GST from the buyer and the same has to be deposited with the Government. But, in this case M/s Fastlane had collected the GST from its buyers, but allegedly it did not deposit the same with the government within the stipulated time. Thus, the penalty was imposed.
Based on the available evidences, the department has concluded that they had evaded the taxes and diverted the funds of about ₹10.81 crore to their related firms/companies. This money pertains to the A.P. Fibernet Project. C.B. C.I.D, A.P. is also investigating a case regarding this scam.
M/s Fastlane was utilised by M/s Terasoftware to divert and misappropriate the funds released by the AP State Fibernet Ltd, alleged the government.
Viplav Kumar. Valluri, the former Managing Director of M/s Fastlane, in his statement said that they could not pay the taxes as APSFL has not paid the invoice amounts to them even though they had deducted TDS. But, on verification by the APSDRI, it was found that it was not the case. They received the amounts and diverted the funds to their related firms/companies like Netops, XYZ Innovations and Koffee Media, the APSDRI informed.
Netops had invested that amount in the real estate company being owned by Mr. Vemuri Harikrishna Prasad, who is a prime accused in the A.P. Fibernet Scam and allegedly an associate of former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, according to the APSDRI.
As they had not paid the amounts to their vendor viz M/s Ingram, it had approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Their application was admitted in NCLT and M/s Fastlane is now under insolvency process, the APSDRI mentioned.
According to the information from the government officials, Viplav in his statement further stated that M/s Fastlane was incorporated on the request of Tummala Gopi Chand, MD of M/s Tera Soft Ltd to assist him in the APSFL project. Mr. Gopichand is another accused in the case who is being investigated by CB CID.
M/s Fastlane had stopped filing the GST returns in Andhra Pradesh from September 2020 and the registration was cancelled by the government.
Mr. Viplav Kumar was earlier arrested by the CBCID and is now out on bail. Both Vemuri Harikrishna and Mr. Gopichand had obtained anticipatory bail from the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The anticipatory bail plea of Mr. Naidu in the A.P. Fibernet case was rejected by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh. He later approached the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail, and the court is to hear the plea on December 12.
