NEW DELHI: The government is planning a major crackdown on GST evasion with a nation-wide special drive to detect fake and suspicious GST registrations. The principal commissioner of GST in an internal letter to all principal chief commissioners, chief commissioners and principal commissioners has said the fake registrations are being used to fraudulently pass on input tax credit to unscrupulous recipients by issuing invoices without any underlying supply of goods or services or both.
In order to curb this menace and check loss of revenue, the GST department is planning a coordinated drive from May 16 to July 15, 2023, to detect such entities. The decision to launch a special drive was taken during the National Coordination Meeting of the state and central GST officers held on April 24, 2023. It has been decided that common guidelines will be issued to ensure uniformity in the action by the field formations and for effective coordination and monitoring of the action taken during the special drive.
GST Network, the entity that provides IT backbone for administration of GST, will identify fake GST Identification Numbers (GSTINs) and share the same with state and central tax authorities for necessary action. Field formations may also supplement this list by data analysis at their own end using various available analytical tools as well as through human intelligence, Aadhar database, and other local learnings.
Once the list is provided to field officers, suspicious GSTINs will be verified in a time-bound manner. If, after detailed verification, it is found that the taxpayer is non-existent and fictitious, then the tax officer may initiate action for suspension and cancellation of the registration of the taxpayer. The GST department has so far unearthed GST frauds amounting to Rs 1.01 lakh crore and recovered Rs 21,000 crore in taxes in 2022-23.