5 Indians jailed for making fraudulent claims in Singapore

Five Indian nationals were jailed here on Monday for making fraudulent Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund claims amounting to 167,253 Singapore dollars (US $120,422) between January 2015 to May last year, a media report said.

Kothandaraman Gnanam (29), Karunanidhi Rajesh (32), Ramaiyan Karthikeyan (44) and Waithiyalingam Karunanidhi (61), were each jailed for three years and three months.

Their accomplice, Karunanithi Saravanan (37) was jailed for three years and two months, the Strait Times reported. The men were also fined between 14,000 Singapore dollars ($10,080) and 70,000 Singapore dollars ($50,400). Each man also had to fork out US $37,405 as a penalty.

The court heard that the men loitered in and around jewellery shops in Little India to obtain invoices and jewellery tags from customers such as Singapore permanent residents and work pass holders, who are not entitled to GST refunds.

Then they would buy the invoices from the customers but no mention was made on the amount they paid for each invoice. Tourists visiting Singapore can claim GST refunds on goods they bought when they leave the country. They receive a receipt for goods purchased and an eTRS ticket when they buy items from a GST-registered retailer.

The tourists can then use the eTRS ticket to make GST refund claims at ports of departure. They can also make similar transactions using the credit cards which they had used to buy their goods. The five men used their passports and white embarkation cards to obtain eTRS tickets from the respective shops using the receipts they had obtained, the daily reported. They then matched the invoices, jewellery tags and eTRS tickets with the jewellery they already had in hand.

Karunanithi Saravanan also provided jewellery from his own wholesale purchases to his accomplices to help them.