Around 25% of 69,000 suspected GST accounts fake, Rs 15,000 crore evasion likely

For representational purpose.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has found that nearly 25 percent of suspected Goods and Services Tax accounts do not exist or have vanished after availing benefits of around Rs 15,000 crore.

The evasion and fake accounts have been unearthed as part of an ongoing two-month special drive to weed out fake accounts registered with the GST Network, the Times of India reported on July 7.

The authorities used artificial intelligence and data analytics to identify around 69,000 suspected accounts after scrubbing the GST database. The drive, which ends July 15, found 17,000 of them to be bogus, the report said.

Moneycontrol couldn't verify the report independently.

The role of entities including some big names in business is also being looked into. A top leading food delivery service provider, for instance, is believed to have availed of manpower services from companies which were found to be bogus, the report said.

At present, there are 1.39 crore taxpayers registered under GST regime. The GST collections in June rose 12 percent to more than Rs 1.61 lakh crore, the finance ministry said on July 1. It was for the fourth time, the gross GST collection has crossed Rs 1.60 lakh crore mark.

Delhi had the highest success rate or the largest number of fakes detected from the list of suspect registrations, the report said citing government sources.

“There are some decisions that have already been taken by the GST Council on the issues, we will implement them. The idea is to ensure that leakages are prevented,” the daily quoted an official as saying.

The issue is also likely to come up at the GST Council meeting on July 11, where the information will be shared with finance ministers of the states.

Officials said there was no plan to tighten registration norms, saying the idea was to make the process smooth for honest taxpayers instead of troubling them with higher compliance.

CBIC, however, does plan periodic checks to ensure that the benefits are not misused, the report said.