New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS) Goods and Services Tax (GST) evasion to the tune of Rs 7.08 lakh crore has been detected in crackdowns carried out by tax officials in 91,370 cases during the last five financial years from 2020-21 to 2024-25, the Parliament was informed on Monday.

As much as Rs 1.79 lakh crore of the evasion amount comprised ITC fraud in as many as 44,938 cases that were detected during the five years.

The amount of GST recovered during this five-year period by way of voluntary deposits stood at over Rs 1.29 lakh crore.

In financial year 2024-25, over Rs 2.23 lakh crore of GST evasion was detected by CGST field officers, data tabled by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in the Lok Sabha showed.

Of the 30,056 cases of GST evasion detected in 2024-25, more than half, or 15,283 cases, were related to input tax credit (ITC) fraud, in which the amount involved was Rs 58,772 crore.

In the financial year 2023-24, the GST evasion detected by tax officials added up to Rs 2.30 lakh crore, of which ITC fraud comprised as much as Rs 36,374 crore.

Similarly, in 2023-24, around Rs 1.32 lakh crore GST evasion was detected, which included Rs 24,140 crore as ITC fraud.

In financial year 2022-23, the GST evasion detected stood at Rs 73,238 crore, of which ITC fraud constituted Rs 28,022 crore, while in 2021-22, the GST evasion amounted to Rs 49,384 crore, while ITC fraud comprised Rs 31,233 crore.

The minister also said that the net CGST collection was 96.7 per cent of the revised estimate (RE) in the 2024-25 fiscal.

“The Central government and GSTN are taking various steps to prevent tax evasion, such as digitisation through E-invoicing, GST analytics, highlighting of outliers based on system-flagged mismatches, providing actionable intelligence and selection of 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,” he said.

Besides, 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 propensity for fraudulent activity to generate Intelligence reports, he added.

–IANS

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