The Department of Revenue Investigation on Sunday filed cases against five people at the Patan High Court on the charge of dodging taxes totalling Rs180.56 billion by using fake VAT (value added tax) receipts.

Among the individuals facing the charge are Manish Kumar Agrawal, Hitesh Kumar Agrawal, Pramit Maharjan, Bimal Agrawal and Dipendra Kumar Agrawal representing various firms, according to the department.

They were involved in purchasing fake VAT receipts and using them to evade income and VAT by preparing fake financial and income details, the department said in a statement.

They were dodging taxes through four firms—Subhalaxmi International, Ganapati Trade Links, HB Trade and Suppliers, and MK International.

The cases filed against them are a part of the investigation the department conducted over the last three years. Firstly, the department had investigated people involved in producing fake VAT receipts. Later, those who purchased such receipts and used them for evading taxes were investigated.

The sellers produced such receipts on a large scale and sold them to various firms charging them a certain percentage of the value of the receipts. “In the last three years, we filed cases of tax evasion totalling around Rs50 billion,” said Prakash Paudel, director general at the department. “Around half of the total amount of tax evasion is related to fake VAT receipts.”

He said that the department is investigating around 350 firms that had purchased fake VAT receipts and used them to evade taxes.

Some of the cases filed by the department involve huge amounts. For example, on March 25 and 26 last year, the department filed cases against the owners of nine firms at the Patan High Court for dodging taxes by using fake VAT receipts amounting to nearly Rs3 billion.

On April 23 last year, the department had filed cases against 16 defendants representing 13 firms for dodging a total of Rs2.19 billion in government revenue by selling fake VAT receipts. Arun Kumar Gupta, proprietor of Anil Gupta and Associates and Prabin Kumar Mahato, proprietor of Ankush Trade and Suppliers, were among the 16 defendants in the case.

According to the department, big projects, contractors and suppliers to the government entities have been found to have rampantly used fake VAT receipts. Those involved in the production of fake VAT receipts are found to have registered their firms in the name of ordinary people, employees and workers and sold the receipts to several firms.