Visakhapatnam: The officials of the commercial taxes department have discovered a huge racket that involves forged waybills to the dealers so that the payment of commercial taxes transported across the state on goods to be given to the dealers can be escaped.   

Despite the fact that the racket is in continuation and has not been unopposed for the past five years, it came into the light when one of the traders approached the officials with some clue. The officials who were unable to spell out the misuse of the waybills suspected that goods worth crores were transported without any taxes being paid.

Talking to the reporters of a newspaper, deputy commissioner of commercial taxes department, T. Siva Sankara Rao said three manual waybill books had been stolen by a contingent employee of the department at Gajuwaka Circle R. Narayana Rao and he allegedly sold it to some traders, who indulged in illegal transportation of goods.

The officer even said that Narayana Rao had supposedly stolen 67 waybill books (each of the book contains 50 sheets) over a period of five years and sold it to some unscrupulous elements for a high price and the traders transported goods including scrap, iron-sheets and re-rolling of steel by evading taxes on goods with the fake waybills as there is no check points within the state.

The accused Narayana Rao was helped by G. Koteswara Rao of Vizianagaram area to sell the waybills to several dealers across the state. The case came into the light when one of the genuine traders in the city found a fake waybill valued at 3.5 lakh from one of the so- called traders and he approached the officials.

Based on this clue, the officials led by Siva Sankara Rao brought the scam to the light. Though, the officer said that further details will come into the light only when the police will reach to some conclusion  and when they will complete the investigation into the case.

Both the accused duo Narayana Rao and Koteswara Rao were arrested after the complaint filed by the CT officials. Narayana Rao had stolen around 31 waybill books during the undivided Andhra agitation in 2013 when the entire staff was on strike.

“Till date some of the traders in the city are using manual waybill books and our sincere appeal to all traders is to switch to e-waybills to prevent fraud,” the officers added.