One more arrest of GST Officer reported. As per a report published by the Times of India, the state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) on Wednesday arrested a class-I officer of the goods and services tax (GST) department for allegedly demanding and accepting Rs 30,000 bribe from a government contractor for not taking action against the latter in a case of payment of a lesser value-added tax for works executed in 2013.

“A team headed by the superintendent of police (ACB, Pune) Sandeep Diwan and assistant commissioner Jagdish Satav nabbed assistant commissioner (GST) Prasad Purushottam Patil red-handed while accepting the bribe on the premises of the GST office canteen,” TOI reported.

The contractor paid 5% VAT as per the government rules at that time for the work that he had executed. In 2013-14, the office of issued a notice to the contractor stating that he was supposed to pay 8% VAT instead of 5%, ACB said.

However, the Government rules mandate the contractor to pay only 5% VAT for a government work executed. This was fulfilled by the contractor, ACB said. Adhering to the notice, the GST office asked him to pay the fine of Rs 6.35 lakh with interest of Rs 5 lakh and other fees. The total amount calculated by the GST office was Rs 17 lakh.

Last month, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Goods and Services Tax (GST) Commissioner Sansar Chand, posted in Kanpur, along with eight others in a bribery case. In that case, the Commissioner, along with two superintendents of the department, one personal staff, and five private people were nabbed by the CBI in a late-night operation spread across Kanpur and Delhi.

Sources told PTI that it’s alleged that the commissioner was a “habitual” offender, taking bribes from businessmen on a monthly and weekly basis, and it was during one such collection of Rs 1.5 lakh last night that he was nabbed.