The Tirunelveli Sub-Commissionerate, taking care of Goods and Service Tax in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts, has made a tax collection of ₹662 crore against the target of ₹696 crore during last fiscal despite the prolonged lockdown last year that almost derailed the business for major part of the financial year.
“Though the lockdown had seriously hit all the businesses, the Tirunelveli Sub-Commissionerate has managed to achieve this revenue during last financial year, mainly through facilitation and raids,” a senior official of the sub-commissionerate said.
The GST officials here say that the iron and steel business including scrap sale was the ‘grey area’ where a section of the people involved in this business tend to prepare fake invoices.
“For the sake of getting ‘input credit,’ some people prepare fake invoices without any transaction. Their places are being raided to find the chain of people involved in this fraud and detect GST evasion. If the quantum of evasion is high, it will certainly lead to arrest of the fraudster,” the officials said adding that ₹ 20 crore GST evasion was detected in this business and ₹12 crore had already been paid during 2020 - 2021.
When the officials, during one of the vehicle checks conducted near at Pudur Pandiapuram near Thoothukudi for E-Way Bills, intercepted a container taken to Bengaluru, they found plastic granules, raw material for making plastic products, worth ₹6 crore, inside. The importer, who had availed tax rebate for this import from Dubai via VOC Port, Thoothukudi, did not have proper documents for the consignment in a bid to evade tax.
“However, the vehicle check ensured the collection of ₹7.42 lakh as GST for this product imported from Dubai,” said the officials.
The officials Helpdesk can be reached via 0462 – 2970235 to clarify doubts or for seeking any help regarding the 3-year-old tax regime.
