GST officers recover Rs 1,900 cr in tax evasion during Apr-Jun: Govt

GST (Goods and Services Tax) officers have recovered Rs 1,900 crore in tax evasion during the April-June quarter of the current fiscal, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said via a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. He also provided details related to tax evasion committed in the last three years.

According to the finance ministry, 1,580 cases of tax taxation have been detected till June. Tax evasion amounting to Rs 7,421.27 crore has been detected in the April-June quarter. Out of this, authorities have managed to recover Rs 1,920 crore.

In 2019-20, 10,657 cases of evasion, involving Rs 40,853.27 crore, were detected, of which Rs 18,464 crore were recovered. In 2020-21, Rs 49,384 crore worth GST evasion was detected across 12,596 cases, and Rs 12,235 crore was recovered.

Chaudhary said tax evaders are known to commit fraud even on electronic platforms. They are doing so by misrepresenting facts like furnishing of fake credentials at the time of registration; by indulging in raising a fake invoice to avail under input tax credits; misdeclaration of classification, etc.

He added that tax evasion may be committed intentionally and at times non-payment may happen due to human error. "However, no evasion of tax has been reported due to a failure in the CBIC back-end system," said Chaudhary.

The MoS said to prevent tax evasion, various validations have been built in the GSTN and CBIC system.

This includes the introduction of Aadhaar authentication for processing of new registration applications. Other measures include provisions to suspend or cancel the registration of taxpayers, bulk suspension of registration by GSTN based on business intelligence and bulk cancellation of registration of taxpayers who failed to file GSTR3B returns for six or more straight months.

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