THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Intelligence Wing of the GST department on Saturday conducted a state-wide raid on star hotels. A total of 64 hotels in 13 districts were covered in the exercise, which started at 2 pm and concluded late night.
An officer said the raids were held to identify GST return defaulters and cases of turnover suppression. The establishments were selected after mismatch was found between their recent return filings and previous tax filings. Field-level data collection by the Intelligence Wing too raised suspicion about fraud.
Start hotels have to pay GST for room rental and restaurant facilities. Since most of the star hotels were bar-attached facilities, an assessment of the liquor sales turnover was also conducted. This was to detect cases of suppression of turnover tax to be paid under the KGST, a tax collected by the state.
Enforcement intensified
The intelligence wing had recently conducted a statewide raid on vehicles at 140 parcel offices. Rule violations detected include lack of invoice or e-way bill and undervaluation. A total of `11 lakh was collected as tax and penalty. On June 13, the wing conducted the first-ever major raid after the GST came into effect. It covered 57 business places of 20 major dealers across the state.