CBIC has booked 106 cases on insurers for ₹7,581.8 cr. tax evasion: Minister

New Delhi, March 14, 2023 

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has booked as many as 106 cases of tax evasion involving a sum of ₹7,581.8 crore against various insurance companies in the past five years, and the Income Tax department has also started taking action against them, the Finance Ministry informed Parliament.

About ₹1,347.2 crore has been recovered from cases involving indirect taxes concerning evasion of Service Tax, prior to the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and non-payment or short payment of GST under reverse charge mechanism or availment of ineligible Input Tax Credit, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in Lok Sabha on Monday.

He was responding to a query from MP V. K. Sreekandan about insurance companies being “under the scanner for rampant tax evasion”. The Hindu had reported last month that the IT department plans to crack down on firms after finding industry-wide irregularities and evasion.

“Whenever any instance of tax evasion comes to the notice, the Income Tax Department takes appropriate action, including conducting searches and surveys, assessment of income, levy and recovery of tax, imposition of penalty and launching of prosecution… against such tax evader(s). Such actions are undertaken in cases of assesses in various sectors, including the insurance sector,” Mr. Chaudhary added.

[The Hindu]