Tax evaders beware! Govt steps up measures to plug revenue leakages

Dodging taxes may not be easy under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. The government is stepping up measures to not only plug revenue leakages but also protect interest of consumers.

As the implementation of GST completes one year, the finance ministry has detected tax evasion of more than Rs 2,100 crore, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) Member, John Joseph, said today at an industry event.

“We are taking tax evasion seriously...so far we have detected evasion worth Rs 2,000 crore. In fact, in the last two-three days, tax evasion of Rs 100-150 crore or more has been caught,” Joseph said.

It is understood that eligible businesses have either been dodging tax payment or producing fake bills, Joseph said.

CBIC, the apex indirect tax policy making body under finance ministry, and the IT backbone of the indirect tax system GST Network (GSTN) have started detailed data analytics across a number of data sets available with them.

With the data collated, the government has been taking action against businesses as it has also emerged that there is a mismatch between the details presented in the return filing forms GSTR 3B (summary form) and GSTR1 (sales form).

CBIC Member, Mahender Singh, who was also present at the event said that the government is working on a mechanism that will enable consumers to get in touch with the nearest tax jurisdiction and launch complaint against a dealer who is not paying tax or asking the consumer to pay more tax than required.

Towards this, CBIC has already developed a mobile app called 'GST Verify' that will help a consumer to verify if the person collecting tax from them is eligible to collect it or not. The app will also provide the details of the entity collecting GST and can be used all across the country.