Tax Evasion has been prevalent from ancient times, persistent to date and will continue in future. Nevertheless, the regulatory authority can limit its intensity if they infuse the efforts aptly and by utilizing the latest technology.
- To date, In the April-June quarter of the present financial year,
- Tax evasion worth Rs1,920 crores has been recovered
- Out of total tax evasion of Rs 7421.27 crores
- In which the number of cases amounted to 1,580 cases
As disclosed by Finance minister Shri Pankaj Choudhary via a return reply in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Furthermore, he disclosed the details of tax evasion in the preceding 3 years. As per the Ministry of Finance, in the year 2019-20, 10,657 cases of tax evasion amounting to Rs 40,853.27 crores were trapped that involved recovery of Rs 18,464 crores.
In the year 2020-21, there was a tax evasion worth Rs 49,384 crores of which Rs 12,235 crores had been recovered in a total number of cases amounting to 12,596 cases.
Furthermore, Shri Chaudhary commented that the tax evaders have no hesitation and they are committing fraud even on electronic platforms. Such acts are committed by
- Misrepresentation of facts for instance furnishing fake credentials at the time of the registration
- Misdeclaration of the Classification
- Indulging in the raising of fake invoices to avail under the input tax credits
- And so on.
However, the minister clarified that sometimes, tax evasion is committed by fault without having any ill intention. However, there has been no-tax evasion due to a failure in the CBIC back-end system,” said Chaudhary.
The aforesaid minister further added that to prevent tax evasion, various measures have been taken. For Instance, various validations have been built in the GSTIN and CBIC system. This is inclusive of
- The Introduction of the Aadhaar authentication for the processing of the new registration applications
- Bulk Cancellation of the registration of the taxpayers. Whoever did not file GSTR 3B returns
- The Bulk suspension of Registration by the GSTN is based on business intelligence
- Making provisions to suspend or even cancel the registration of the taxpayers
The Minister stated that a number of preventive measures have been adopted and implemented to weed out the practice of tax evasion from the economy. Following are the various measures that have been implemented:
- Adoption of the Foolproof mechanism of Aadhar authentication
- Then space is provided to the applicants to verify cancelled/existing registrations of the applicants that are seeking new registrations.
- The provision of suspension or cancellation of the registration of those taxpayers who are trapped in the adverse notice of the department
- By using input from business intelligence and CBIC, bulk suspension of the registration by GSTN
- Cancellation of the registration on the bulk basis of those taxpayers who have failed to file GSTR 3 B returns for 6 or more consecutive months.
- In case of error, blocking of the Input Tax Credit
- The provision to verify the Input Tax Credit through the generation of GSTR2A
