The Centre has recovered nearly Rs 96 crore from 11 crypto exchanges for evading Goods and Services Tax (GST), Minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Parliament in a written reply to a question on Monday.
The recovered amount included interest and penalties from the companies.
The minister said the biggest evasion was detected at Zanmai Labs Pvt. Ltd, which operates under the brand WazirX. The quantum of evasion was Rs 40.51 crore, and the recovered amount was Rs 49.18 crore.
Chaudhary said a few cases of evasion of GST by cryptocurrency exchanges were detected by central GST formations. The agencies unearthed a total evasion of Rs 81.54 crore by crypto exchanges.
According to the tax department, WazirX issued its own cryptocurrency, WRX coins, which was liable to pay 18% GST on the issuance of coins but it did not pay the applicable 18% GST on these coins. At present, 18% GST is levied on services provided by crypto exchanges. Crypto currently is treated similar to lottery, casinos, betting, gambling, horse racing, which has the highest GST levied on them.
After WazirX came to Coin DCX, which evaded Rs 15.70 crore, the exchange paid back Rs 7.10 crore including interest and penalty.
To a question on whether the government has any data regarding the number of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, Chaudhary said the Centre does not collect such data.
CoinSwitch Kuber, Buy Ucoin, UnoCoin, Zeb IT Services, Secure Bitcoin Traders, Giottus Technologies, Awlencan Innovations India (Zebpay) and Discidium Internet Labs were among other evaders listed by the finance ministry.
The 2022-23 Budget provisions have laid that from April 1, a 30% I-T plus cess and surcharges, will be levied on crpto assets in the same manner as it treats gambling, lottery and other speculative transactions.
Watch the latest DH Videos here: