Chandigarh registers 208 GST evasion cases in 4 years.
A total of 208 cases of goods and service tax (GST) evasion have been registered in the city in the past four financial years, revealed the data shared by Union minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary during the ongoing budget session of Parliament.
In reply to a question raised in Lok Sabha, Chaudhary stated that 60 cases of GST fraud have been registered in Chandigarh in 2020-21, 71 in 2021-22, 47 in 2022-23 and 30 till December 2023-24.
To another query, Chaudhary replied that the GST collection in the city have increased substantially in the past three years. The UT reported ₹1,651 crore gross GST collection in 2020-21, ₹1,979 crore in 2021-22, ₹2,365 crore in 2022-23 and ₹2071 crore for the fiscal year 2023-24.
To a question raised in Rajya Sabha, on bogus firms involved in suspected input tax credit (ITC) evasion, the ministry shared that a total of two bogus firms were detected in Chandigarh during the quarter ending December last year, and a tax evasion of ₹5 crore was suspected, out of which ₹1 crore have been recovered.
Earlier, three fraudulent cases related to misuse of PAN and Aadhaar details to claim input tax credit (ITC) have been detected in the UT from July 1, 2017 to July 30, 2023. Two persons have been arrested who had claimed a total amount of ₹10.64 crore ITC.
The Ministry pointed out measures like the use of robust data analytics and artificial intelligence to identify and track risky taxpayers. A special all-India drive was carried out to weed out fake bogus registrations from May 16 to July 15 last year.
The amendment to Rule 9 of GST rules, 2017, provides for physical verification in high-risk cases, even when Aadhaar has been authenticated. There is a restriction on the availing of ITC to invoices and debit notes furnished by the supplier in their statement of outward supplies. The data is shared with partner law enforcement agencies for more targeted interventions.