Seven major onion traders in Nashik, India have been misusing the central government's 5% subsidy scheme on the export of onions by submitting fake and inflated bills, an investigation has revealed.
The DNA had reported on Income Tax (I-T) raids on these seven traders.
According to a source at the I-T department in Nashik, these major traders, including Omprakash Ranka, Kantilal Surana, Sohan Seth Bandh, were being kept under close watch for the last six months.
"Billing patterns and accounts of these traders revealed that they were fraudulently submitting fake and inflated onion export bills to embezzle more subsidy," an official said, requesting anonymity.
"Most transactions took place only on paper, but they had also submitted inflated bills. For instance, if a container capacity was 22 tonnes, they had shown bills of each container carrying 27 tonnes of onion. They not only pocketed the additional subsidy for the extra 5 tonnes, but also used it to route the money into India. It has worked vice versa too."
