Jaipur Resort Sues OYO Over Incorrect GST Notice of Rs.2.66 Crore
According to reports, a resort in Jaipur has lodged a police complaint against OYO, a hotel booking company, and its founder, Ritesh Agarwal, claiming that the latter gave incorrect information that resulted in a GST notice of Rs.2.66 crore.
A complaint from Madan Jain of Samskara Resorts served as the basis for the FIR, which was submitted to the Ashok Nagar police station in Jaipur.
OYO, formally known as Oravel Stays Pvt Ltd, was accused by Jain in the FIR of inflating the resort's turnover by displaying fictitious reservations, some of which even dated for times when the two parties did not even have an agreement.
According to the magazine, Samskara and OYO entered into a 12-month agreement on April 18, 2019, during which time the resort claimed to have only received reservations totaling Rs.10.95 lakh through OYO and to have paid GST appropriately.
However, the GST department issued a letter demanding Rs.2.66 crore in unpaid tax and penalties after OYO purportedly reported a business worth Rs.22.22 crore.
Allegedly, OYO displayed reservations in Samskara for the fiscal years 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21, even though there was no contract between them.
Oravel Stays Private Limited, also known as OYO, Ritesh Agarwal, the company's founder and group CEO, and a number of other people are named in the FIR, which was filed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for defrauding, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and criminal conspiracy.
However, it has been claimed that OYO's inflated bill creation is not exclusive to Samskara Resorts.
About 20 hotels allegedly received GST notifications based on exaggerated bills purportedly provided by OYO, according to Husain Khan, head of the Hotel Federation of Rajasthan.
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"We had campaigned against it, with 125 hotels displaying banners outside the hotels stating that we are not accepting OYO bookings," he claimed, referring to OYO's "poor record" with hotels.