Tea Stall Vendor Served Rs 109 Crore Tax Evasion Notice In Odisha’s Rourkela

Rourkela: A tea-stall vendor of Odisha’s Rourkela is the latest victim to GST scam.

The vendor, Kartik Kamila of Koel Nagar in the Steel City, was served a GST fraud notice of Rs 109 crore. With a meager monthly earnings enough to meet his family’s needs, the notice came a rude shock to him.

Kartik has been represented as owner of a market complex at Koel Nagar here by Lingaraj Trading company. A team of the Director General of Goods & Services Tax intelligence (DGGI) who had visited the spot for inquiry found that Kartik runs a tea-stall and sells some vegetables in front of the mentioned market complex.

Several other details mentioned in the notice were fake too. He does not even own a house but the notice mentioned about Kartik renting a premises to someone. On inquiry about the rent agreement signature, Kartik informed the officials that he can not read or write English and hence, it was not his.

Kamila suspected that someone might have used his electricity bills to commit the fraud.

Earlier, several such people like owners of small eateries, labourers, housewives, students and auto-rickshaw drivers as well as labourers in the city were victimised in a similar way by the scamsters.