GST evasion detection nearly doubles to Rs 1.01 lakh crore in FY23

GST evasion detection by tax officers almost doubled year-on-year to over Rs 1.01 lakh crore in the just concluded 2022-23 fiscal, an official said. During the last fiscal, a recovery of Rs 21,000 crore was made by the officers of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI).

The official said the government is taking steps to increase compliance and using data analytics and human intelligence to identify fraud.

"DGGI officers have detected evasion to the tune of Rs 1,01,300 crore in 2022-23. Of this, recovery of Rs 21,000 crore have been made," the official told PTI.

In 2021-22, DGGI, the investigative agency under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, detected evasion of over Rs 54,000 crore and made a tax recovery of over Rs 21,000 crore.

The total number of Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion cases has gone up this fiscal with about 14,000 cases detected in 2022-23, up from 12,574 cases in 2021-22 and 12,596 cases in 2020-21.

The modus operandi adopted by fraudsters included short payment of tax by undervaluing taxable goods and services, wrong availment of exemption notifications, wrong availment of the input tax credit, non-payment of tax on supply of taxable goods and services (clandestine removal), and fraudulent availment of the input tax credit on the basis of invoices from fake firms.

In a reply to the Lok Sabha last month, the Finance Ministry said total GST evasion detected between July 2017 to February 2023 was close to Rs 3.08 lakh crore, of which over Rs 1.03 lakh crore was recovered. GST authorities had arrested 1,402 persons for evading taxes in the last five-and-a-half years till February 2023.