24 big importers found evading Rs 11,000 crore IGST
May 12, 2023
Synopsis
The Indian Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have discovered alleged Integrated GST evasion of ₹11,000 crore ($1.5 billion) by 24 large importers. Some of the companies involved are in the steel, pharmaceutical, gems and jewellery, and textiles sectors. Tax fraud has been discovered based on data produced by the Advanced Analytics in Indirect Taxation.
The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have detected alleged Integrated GST evasion to the tune of ₹11,000 crore by 24 large importers.
"So far evasion detected is about ₹11,000 crore in about 24 cases and we have sent notices to seven entities in this regard," a senior official from one of the agencies told ET.
These notices to importers from Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai jurisdictions were sent out over the last 20 days. The agencies are in the process of sending notices to the others, ET has learnt.
The companies are largely from the steel, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, and textiles sectors.
The tax evasion in these cases has been detected based on data generated by the Advanced Analytics in Indirect Taxation (ADVIT), said the official cited above.
While there were many instances of wrongly availing input tax credits, notices were being sent only in cases where data was independently verified and investigated by field formations, the official said.
The government is now looking to further strengthen ADVIT to capture newer sets of information about importers and exporters.
Changes introduced in it include a comparison report between tax paid and tax payable populated in the GSTR-9 filed by taxpayers under a selected jurisdiction for a financial year.
Officials can now get visibility on place of supply, amount of tax, and ledger utilised, all at one place, giving them a holistic view of payments made by taxpayers under the Know Your Taxpayer dashboard.
"The new functionalities are intended to enable a deeper and richer analysis of revenue and of trends in both import and export," Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chairman Vivek Johri wrote in a letter to all field formations on May 2. "The functionalities make use of advanced data science models to detect outliers and anomalies both on the customs as well on the GST side... These functionalities will go a long way towards better understanding of our revenue profile and help help plug any potential leakages," he wrote.
The government is to start a two-month intensive drive from May 16 to detect fake invoices, fake GST registration and wrong input tax credit.
[The Economic Times]
