In a bid to curb frauds in Goods and Services Tax (GST) and increase compliance, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and the State taxation department has detected tax evasion of Rs 5 crore in Meghalaya during the quarter ending in December 2023.
CBIC and the state governments, across the country have carried out a focused drive on the issue of non-existent, bogus registrations and issuance of fake invoices without any underlying supply of goods and services.
However, there were no reports of bogus firms detected in Meghalaya or recovery of the Input Tax Credit (ITC) during the period.
In Assam, 19 bogus firms were detected and the suspected tax evasion was to the tune of Rs 116 crore. The ITC that was blocked or recovered was Rs 67 crore. It was also reported that there were eight fake firms per lakh registered firms in Assam.
Since the initiation of the special drive against fake registrations in mid-May 2023, a total of 29,273 bogus firms involved in suspected Input Tax Credit (ITC) evasion of Rs 44,015 crore have been detected across the country. This has saved Rs 4,646 crore of which Rs 3,802 crore is by blocking ITC and Rs 844 crore is by way of recovery. So far, 121 arrests have been made in the cases.
In the quarter ending December, 2023, as many as 4,153 bogus firms that involved suspected ITC evasion of around Rs. 12,036 crore were detected. 2,358 of these bogus firms were detected by the Central GST authorities. This has protected revenue of Rs 1,317 crore of which Rs 319 crore has been realised and Rs 997 crore has been protected by blocking ITC. 41 persons were arrested in these cases. 31 of these arrests were by Central GST authorities.
The Central government has taken various measures to strengthen the GST registration process. Besides, the government has tried to curtail evasion of tax through measures such as sequential filing of GST returns, system generated intimation for reconciliation of the gap in tax liability in GSTR-1 & GSTR- 3B returns and of the gap between ITC available as per GSTR-2B & ITC availed in GSTR-3B returns, use of data analytics and risk parameters for detection of fake ITC, etc.
