NEW DELHI: Increasing GST evasion among businesses has become a matter of concern for the taxmen as they have detected tax evasion worth Rs 20,000 crore this fiscal. “GST evasion is a matter of concern. Between April 2018 and February 2019, GST evasion worth Rs 20,000 crore has been detected,” said John Joseph, member, investigation customs Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. He was speaking in an event organized by Assocham.
The department claimed that out of the Rs 20,000 crore tax evasion detected so far, the department had recovered Rs 10,000 crore and was in the process of tracking more evasions.
He said the tax officers on Tuesday detected fake invoices worth Rs 1,500 crore which were used to claim illegal GST credit of Rs 75 crore. “We have already recovered Rs 25 crore and the rest is on the way,” Joseph said.
Acknowledging that there were some “black sheep” in business who brought a bad name to the industry, Joseph said the government would take more measures to increase compliance, and act against evaders in such a way that genuine businesses did not suffer.
GST compliance has steadily declined over the past one year as 28.75 per cent of regular taxpayers did not file returns in November 2018 compared to 10.56 per cent in November 2017, which is an almost three-fold increase in non-filers.
Among taxpayers under the composite scheme, the non-filers have increased to 25.37 per cent in the July-Sept period of 2018-2019 from 15.03 per cent in the same period of 2017-2018.
Fake invoices to claim input tax credit increased from only four cases involving Rs 9.75 crore in 2017-18 to 499 involving Rs 3,894.94 crore in 2018-19.
Central tax officers have detected 3,626 cases of GST evasion/violations, involving Rs 15,278.18 crore in April-December, which has now gone up to Rs 20,000 crore.
He said the department would call a meeting of representatives of the real estate sector to understand transition issues faced by the sector post reduction in GST rates.