GST Evasion Of Rs 1.95 Lakh Crore Detected By CGST Officers During April-January

Central Goods and Service Tax officers have uncovered a staggering Rs 1.95 lakh crore in tax evasion across 25,397 cases from April to January in the current fiscal year. This revelation was shared in Parliament on Monday, shedding light on the government's efforts to combat tax evasion.

Over the last five years, authorities have detected a total of 86,711 GST evasion cases, amounting to a whopping Rs 6.79 lakh crore. In the current fiscal year up to January 2025, the total number of evasion cases detected stood at 25,397, with a total detection amount of Rs 1,94,938 crore. Notably, a voluntary deposit of Rs 21,520 crore was made in relation to these tax evasion cases.

The total number of ITC fraud cases in the current fiscal stood at 13,018, involving an amount of Rs 46,472 crore. A voluntary deposit of Rs 2,211 crore was made.

According to the GST Investigation Wing data, in the 2023-24 fiscal 20,582 evasion cases were detected involving Rs 2.30 lakh crore.

In 2022-23, GST evasion detection was Rs 1.32 lakh crore, in 2021-22 (Rs 73,238 crore) and in 2020-21 (Rs 49,384 crore).

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the Central Government and GSTN have taken various steps to improve compliance and prevent tax evasions, including providing intelligence inputs, detecting fraudulent registration and suspicious e-way bill activity and selecting returns for scrutiny and selection of taxpayers for audit based on various risk parameters.

"These measures are helpful in safeguarding the revenue and nabbing the evaders. Certain projects were also undertaken, such as ‘Project Anveshan’ (Analytics, Verification, Shortlisting of Anomalies), whereby newer techniques like Facial Recognition System (FRS), e-way bill data, etc., were used for early identification of GSTINs with a propensity for fake/fraudulent activity to generate intelligence reports," Chaudhary said.

(With inputs from PTI)