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“The evasion detected in the second drive is a huge amount of ₹26,543 crore. Almost 27% of entities were found bogus. In states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi, maximum cases of evasion have been reported,” one of the sources told Moneycontrol.
Despite the large amount of tax evasion detected, recovery remains a challenge. “In many cases, the ITC is utilised before the fraud is discovered,” he said. “This limits the scope of recovery, even though the quantum of fraud averages ₹1.5 crore per fake entity.”
The findings of the second drive will likely be presented in the GST Council meeting on December 21. The Council is expected to deliberate on measures to strengthen GST compliance and further tighten regulations against fake invoicing and ITC fraud, a second source told Moneycontrol.
Out of the initial list of 74,070 taxpayers flagged as risky, about 5,000 remain to be verified, primarily from Delhi and Maharashtra. Maharashtra accounts for 765 pending verifications, while Delhi alone has 3,300 cases yet to be investigated. “The delay in Maharashtra is likely due to the state elections,” the person noted.
The list of risky taxpayers was provided by the GST Network (GSTN), with states supplementing it using local intelligence. “GSTN had flagged risky taxpayers, and states had the liberty to add to the list based on local intelligence,” he added.
This is the second major operation against fake ITC frauds following the success of the first drive. The CBIC had initially carried out the first two-month special investigation from May 14 to July 14, in which 77,200 entities were verified. Out of these, 20,800 were found to be bogus.
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First Published: Dec 18, 2024 4:59 PM IST
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