Thane, Feb 4 (IANS): The CGST Thane Anti-Evasion Wing (Mumbai Zone) has arrested a couple from a Thane firm for evading Goods & Services Tax to the tune of Rs 12.23 crore, an official said here on Friday.

According to CGST Commissioner Rajan Chaudhary, based on detailed data-mining and data-analysis, a probe was initiated against a suspicious firm, Datalink Consultancy.

The company was detected as providing manpower to various high-profile companies, and it had collected GST from the clients, but had not deposited the same to the government for over a year.

The partners of the firm -- a husband-wife couple aged 50 and 48, respectively, were arrested for violating provisions of the Section 132 (d) of the GST Act, 2017, on Thursday.

They were presented before a Thane Magistrate who remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

Chaudhary said that if found guilty, they could face a jail term of up to five years and a penalty.

The case was part of a major anti-evasion drive launched by CGST Mumbai Zone against such evaders and scamsters.

During the current campaign, the CGST Thane Commissioner alone detected tax cheating of Rs 1,023 crore, recovered Rs 17 crore in the past five months and arrested 6 persons.

Chaudhary said the CGST sleuths use data-mining, data-analysis and network-analysis tools to identify potential evaders and fraudsters, focussing on all sectors like services and digital economy to target and nab the cheats.