Government said GST officers have detect 29,273 bogus firms involve in fake Input Tax Credit (ITC) claims of Rs 44,015 crore in 8 months till December 2023 during a drive against fake registration, which help save revenue of Rs 4,646 crore.
In the October-December quarter, 4,153 bogus firms that involve suspect ITC evasion of around Rs 12,036 crore were detect.
As many as 2,358 of these bogus firms were detect by the Central GST Authorities.
Maharashtra top the list with 926 bogus firms detect, follow by Rajasthan (507), Delhi (483) and Haryana (424).
This detection during the December quarter protect revenue of Rs 1,317 crore of which Rs 319 crore has realise and Rs 997 crore has protect by blocking ITC.
As many as 41 persons were arrest in these cases while 31 of these arrests were made by Central GST Authorities, as per finance ministry.
As per Finance Ministry statement :
“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. This has saved Rs 4,646 crore of which Rs 3,802 crore is by blocking of ITC and Rs 844 crore is by way of recovery. So far, 121 arrests have been made in the cases,”.
During the December quarter, the suspect tax evasion by 926 bogus firms in Maharashtra worked out to be Rs 2,201 crore, as a result 11 persons were arrest.
In case of Delhi, the suspect tax evasion by 483 bogus firms was Rs 3,028 crore and 11 people were arrest.
While in case of Andhra Pradesh, the suspect tax evasion by 19 bogus firms was Rs 765 crore and in case of Haryana 424 bogus firms were detect involve in the evasion Rs 624 crore.
In Uttar Pradesh, 443 bogus firms were detect involve in suspect GST evasion of Rs 1,645 crore.
5 persons were arrest in the state during the quarter.
To curb fraud in Goods and Services Tax (GST) and increase compliance, the GST formations, under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and the State/UT Governments, across the country are carrying out a focus drive on the issue of non-existent / bogus registrations and issuance of fake invoices without any underlying supply of goods and service.
The finance ministry said the Government has taken various measures to strengthen the GST registration process.
Pilot projects of biometric based Aadhar authentication at the time of registration have launch in the States of Gujarat, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh.
Government has endeavoure to curtail evasion of tax through measures such as sequential filing of GST returns, system generate 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 and many others, finance ministry said.
