Ahmedabad: The state GST (Goods and Service Tax) department this week conducted raids on ice cream parlours, juice centres, and fast food outlets across 47 locations in Ahmedabad, Surat, and Rajkot. The raids, targeting 24 vendors, caught tax evasion amounting to 40 crores rupees.

The vendors caught in raid include Bismillah, Mahalakshmi Juice and Fast Food Corner, and 51 Rainbow in Surat; Patel Ice Cream, Astodia Juice Center, Ice Cream Library, Shankar Ice Cream, and Jaisinh Ice Cream in Ahmedabad; and Atul Ice Cream in Rajkot. The raid amounted to 40 crores, with 4 crores attributed to pizza sales and 30 crores to transactions involving ice cream, juice, and similar items and 6.75 crores for the sales of fritters(bhajiya).

During the raid, it was revealed that 24 outlets failed to declare their profits in official account books. Additionally, they concealed expenses related to raw materials and intentionally refrained from issuing bills to customers. To mask their real earnings, these outlets used QR codes of their relatives and staffers for customers who would pay through UPI mode.

It was also revealed that Surat based Bismillah brand used Petpooja software to automatically erase bills from their records. It was also found that they operated 29 outlets without proper franchise contracts. The raid at Bismillah brand and its associates exposed unaccounted transactions amounting to over 100 crores. DeshGujarat

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