Punjab's Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema announced that an investigation by the state's taxation department has uncovered extensive fake billing scams amounting to thousands of crores. Two firms involved in gold transactions generated fake bills worth Rs 860 crore, while 303 iron-related firms were implicated in Rs 4,044 crore of fraudulent billing. Additionally, 68 firms registered under different names created fake bills totaling Rs 533 crore. Inspections revealed that specific firms in Amritsar and Ludhiana created fake transactions worth Rs 336 crore and Rs 424 crore, respectively. The state has cancelled the registrations of the implicated firms and blocked Rs 707 crore in falsely claimed Input Tax Credit (ITC). Cheema emphasized the state's commitment to preventing tax evasion, including measures linking GST registration to Aadhaar authentication.