GST evasion carried out through 4,909 bogus establishments: Tax official

Indore, June 14, 2023

Authorities have detected GST evasion to the tune of more than Rs 8,100 crore and it has been found that the offence was carried out through 4,909 bogus business establishments spread in parts of the country, a tax official from Madhya Pradesh said on Wednesday.

MP Commercial Tax Commissioner Lokesh Kumar Jatav said the state Goods and Services Tax (GST) Department got the initial clues of this big tax evasion during a month-long investigation of e-way bills of an establishment in Indore. "On a detailed analysis and scrutiny of the data, a total of 4,909 suspicious business establishments were found across the country. Of these, a maximum of 1,888 establishments are in Delhi, 831 in Uttar Pradesh, 474 in Haryana, 210 in Tamil Nadu, 201 in Maharashtra, 167 in Telangana and 139 in Madhya Pradesh," he said. Jatav said that these 4,909 establishments under investigation showed a turnover of about Rs 29,000 crore in GST returns during the financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23 and the investigation detected evasion of Rs 8,103 crore. The tax evasion was done by taking undue advantage of input tax credit of GST through bogus business and fake bills, he said.

According to Jatav, the GST department of Madhya Pradesh would conduct a detailed investigation of tax evasion in coordination with the authorities concerned of other states and also register a first information report (FIR) against the accused.

[Press Trust of India]