According to a senior government official, GST evasion worth Rs 12,000 crore has been recorded in 8 months between April and November. Even the introduction of the e-way bill and electronic returns could not deal properly with the evasion cases, says Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) member John Joseph. The compliance needs to be increased, he added.
Joseph looks after the investigation department in the CBIC. He reported that around Rs 8,000 crore worth of tax evasion has already been recovered by the official in different cases. The tax evasion is minimal as only about 5-10% of the eligible 1.2 crore taxpayers are evading tax, but it is a serious thing because they are building a bad reputation for the industry.
“We started anti-evasion measures from April onwards, and from April-November we have detected Rs 12,000 crore of GST evasion. This is huge compared to what happened in central excise or service tax side. There is huge evasion. There are smarter guys outside who knows how to pocket the money,” said Joseph while addressing an Assocham event. “We need to improve compliance mechanism,” he added.
It has only been one and a half year of GST, which was implemented as a single indirect tax system on July 1, 2017. Until now, the government was flexible regarding compliance and enforcement actions.
Joseph also addressed the concerns regarding whether a new government will cause any adverse effect on the GST process. He said that taxpayers need not worry about the impact of election results on the GST, as the GST was a combined effort of politicians from both ruling and the opposition party. “There may be some changes in law, some procedural changes can definitely happen, but it will not be the lock, stock, and barrel as in the case of Malaysia,” he added.
He also said that all the decision relating to the GST regime were taken by the GST Council, which comprises members from the Centre and states.
