BENGALURU: About Rs 96 crore have been recovered from 11 crypto exchanges for evasion of Goods and Services Tax (GST). According to data released by Parliament on Monday, the GST investigation department detected Rs 81.54 crore by crypto exchanges that include Coin DCX, CoinSwitch Kuber and WazirX. In a written reply, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the amount includes interest and penalty.
The biggest evasion was detected at Zanmai Labs, which manages WazirX. A total of Rs 40.51 crore was evaded and Rs 49.18 crore was recovered from Zanmai Labs. While the quantum of evasion detected at CoinSwitch Kuber was Rs 13.76 crore and Rs 15.70 crore in Coin DCX. Apart from these cryptocurrency exchanges, UnoCoin, Flitpay, Zeb IT Services, Secure Bitcoin Traders and Giottus Technologies are also in the evasion list. The government has recovered Rs 95.86 crore from 11 crypto exchanges.
“There was an ambiguity in the interpretation of one of the components which led to a different calculation of GST paid. However, we voluntarily paid additional GST in order to be cooperative and compliant. There was and is no intention to evade tax,” Zanmai Labs spokesperson had said.