DGGI digs deep into Insurance companies' claims of input tax credit

The Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has widened its probe against the insurance companies for wrongful claim of input tax credit. It has served show cause notices to multiple insurance intermediaries including HDFC Bank, Go Digit Insurance, Policybazaar, people familiar with the development said.

The notices, sent by the Mumbai, Ghaziabad, and Bengaluru offices of DGGI, alleged that these companies issued fake invoices for many insurance companies without providing any service, which is a punishable offence with prosecution under the GST law.

Officials have sent out summons and notices to these intermediaries in the last 15 days. At least 120 insurance intermediaries and aggregators from across the country are under scrutiny. "Our investigation has revealed that the insurance companies availed input tax credit (ITC) without the underlying supply of goods and services, based on fake invoices provided by these insurance intermediaries. We have sent notices," an official said.



Email and text queries sent to HDFC, Policybazaar and Go Digit did not elicit any response till press time.

Companies will be liable to a 100% penalty, the official said.

The investigation was initiated in 2022 and so far, authorities have detected evasion of ₹2,250 crore and is centred on invoices raised from 2018 to March 2022.

Separately, tax authorities have sent notices and summons to insurance companies and made recovery of tax in some cases, they said. The official said so far ₹700 crore had been collected as pre-deposit from these companies.