Govt detects Rs 3.33 lakh crore GST evasion in 5 years

The government has detected Rs 3.33 lakh crore evasion in goods and services tax (GST) in the last five years, out of which only Rs 1.08 lakh crore or less than a third of the total amount, has been recovered, the Finance Ministry informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Maharashtra topped the list with detection of Rs 62,053.13 crore GST evasion in the last five years, followed by Karnataka at Rs 40,762.25 crore, and West Bengal at Rs 31,141.65 crore.

However, in terms of the number of fake GST registration, Delhi topped the list with 5,810 fake registration. One in every five fake GST registration detected in the country is from Delhi.

In the last five years, 25,449 fake GST registrations have been detected, 2,154 fake GST registrations have been suspended, and 17,105 fake GST registrations have been cancelled, Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed the Rajya Sabha.

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The second highest number of fake GST registration has been detected in Tamil Nadu (2,654) followed by Gujarat (2,364), Punjab (2,214) and Maharashtra (2,163).

The highest number of fake GST registrations cancelled in the last five years was in Delhi (5,769), Gujarat (2,289), Punjab (2,002), Maharashtra (1,971) and Uttar Pradesh (906).

The highest number of fake GST registration suspended in the last five years was in Delhi (1,236), followed by Gujarat (378), Maharashtra (178), Tamil Nadu (107), and Kerala (77).

Nearly one-fourth of the money recovered from the detected GST evasion was in Maharashtra. Out of the total Rs 1,08,297.92 crore recovery, Rs 27,181.69 crore came from Maharashtra. The second highest amount of recovery of Rs 9,681.92 crore came from Karnataka followed by Rajasthan (Rs 9,316.79 crore), Gujarat (Rs 8,447.9 crore), and Delhi (Rs 7,082.46 crore).