A Jaipur-based resort has lodged a criminal complaint against hotel aggregator OYO, its founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal, and several others after it received a GST notice of Rs 2.66 crore, allegedly stemming from “fake bookings” to show an “inflated annual turnover”, The Indian Express reported.
Ashok Nagar police station acted upon the complaint of Madan Jain, who is associated with Jaipur’s Samskara Resorts, and filed an FIR.
What does the FIR state?
The FIR accuses OYO of serious charges, including cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and criminal conspiracy under provisions of the newly enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
According to the FIR, Jain had signed a one-year service agreement with OYO on April 8, 2019. The contract was meant to enable both online and walk-in bookings for the resort. However, he alleges that OYO showed fake bookings in his resort’s name over three financial years – 2018–19, 2019–20, and 2020–21 – even though real business was conducted only in the 2019–20 period.
Samskara Resorts reported a business of just Rs 10.95 lakh during the agreement period and paid GST accordingly. But OYO, according to the complaint, falsely reported a turnover of Rs 22.22 crore, resulting in a GST liability of Rs 2.66 crore, which now hangs over the resort, along with penalties.
Multiple hotels report inflated GST notices
This case is not an isolated one. Multiple hoteliers across Rajasthan have reportedly faced similar GST notices due to inflated bookings shown by OYO. The President of the Hotel Federation of Rajasthan, confirmed that OYO has had longstanding issues with trust and transparency and “poor record” with hotels.
“Four years ago, over 125 hotels participated in a campaign against OYO by displaying banners that read, ‘We are not accepting OYO bookings’,” The Indian Express quoted he saying.
