Gujarat has found a staggering Rs 52,394 crore in GST evasion since the start of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2017. In the Parliament the union finance ministry has shown the data, it is from the duration 2017 to June 2024.
Issues continued to be faced by the state and central GST departments in combating tax evasion, even after the measures that have been taken to ease the return filing drawing the new taxpayers and rectify the business environment.
In all, 13,494 cases have been registered related to bogus billing scams, resulting in losses for the exchequer. Over the past 7 years, the State Goods and Services Tax (SGST) and CGST departments have arrested 214 individuals, along with the main accused behind these scams.
It was stated by the SGST official asking for anonymity, that with a rising number of GST scams being reported in Gujarat, the state GST department has opted for important measures and proactive actions for curbing the incidents of bogus billing and consequent GST evasion.
Both the state and central GST department to fight with such problems has started a statewide drive to capture scammers. In a measure, Gujarat drove a project needing biometric verification to issue new GSTINs.
The very initiative has closed a major loophole and lessened the number of new registration applications. As per the source, numerous amendments sought by the SGST department in Gujarat have been taken into account at the national level and are now being executed in the other states that are facing identical problems.
The council is indeed using big data analytics and collaborating with technology companies to fetch the bogus transactions and stop subsequent misuse of the GST system.
