Over Rs 29,000 Crore In Indirect Taxes Evaded During April-October Period; Enforcement Agencies Tighten Grip

Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) and other investigative arms of the Finance Ministry have detected an evasion of Rs 29,088 crore indirect taxes in 1,835 cases during the April-October period of FY19, reports by PTI.

While 1,145 cases of service tax evasion amounted to Rs 22,973 crore, the Central excise duty evasion amounted to Rs 1,553 crore in 119 cases and 571 cases accounted for GST evasion worth Rs 4,562 crore, according to DGGI, the enforcement body for indirect tax evasion.

The figures can go up further as they do not account for reports by field offices of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).

CBIC, however, has tightened the grip on the evaders leading to high recoveries. It has recovered Rs 5,427 crore during the current financial year’s seven month period till October including some evasions from past year. Of the recovery, GST realisations stand at Rs 3,124 crore, service tax realisations stand at Rs 2,174 crore and Rs 128 crore have been recovered through central excise duty.

The Office of Commissioner GST (Investigation), headed by Neeraj Prasad, had been set up by the CBIC to keep a check on evasion in September.

Incentives are announced for informants by the Finance Ministry and the scheme was extended to other government agencies such as police, BSF, CISF and the coast guard. The informers and government servants are eligible for reward up to 20 per cent of net-sale proceeds of the contraband goods, or the amount of penalty levied and recovered.