Govt. gets cracking on GST evaders with data analytics

Official teams have booked 6,641 cases involving 7,164 entities till November last year and have, so far, recovered about ₹1,057 crore

The Department of Revenue has identified as many as 931 cases of fraudulent GST (Goods and Services Tax) refund claims through data analytics and has now tasked the GST data analytics wing to scrutinise all past and pending refund claims filed all over the country for inverted duty structure, sources said.

Refund claims worth more than ₹28,000 crore are said to have been filed by over 27,000 taxpayers so far on account of inverted duty structure in the current financial year.

The sources said such identified taxpayers, who had purchased goods from tax-evading, non-filers, would face verification and scrutiny as necessary.

This is being reviewed and monitored weekly by Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey.

The sources said to curb input tax credit (ITC) frauds, data analytics is to be done on all refunds since 2017, keeping an eye on the modus operandi of unscrupulous refund claimants or fly-by-night or shell business entities for availing fake ITC.