Almost 25% of the 69k suspected fake GST accounts
Vanished after receiving benefits worth about 15 billion rupees, according to a special CBIC drive.
Almost a quarter of the organizations identified in a special drive by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to weed out bogus accounts registered with the GST Network are either nonexistent or have disappeared after receiving almost Rs 15,000 crore in benefits.
The authorities have so far used artificial intelligence and data analysis to identify some 69,000 suspects. However, the two-month investigation, which will continue until the middle of the month, has discovered that there were 17,000 phoney accounts that were used to claim phoney input tax credits.
The role of the chain’s participants, including several well-known companies, is being scrutinised. For instance, it’s claimed that a well-known food delivery service used phoney companies to provide personnel services. Similar examples had surfaced even when the exercise had been done before.
According to government sources who spoke to TOI, of the list of suspect registrations, Delhi has the highest success rate, or the most number of fakes discovered.
In light of the most recent crackdown, CBIC is now proposing to carry out an ongoing effort to make sure that benefits are not being abused. In addition, it wants to tighten some regulations by taking away allowances made to suppliers who filed amended tax returns in order to pay taxes and lessen the burden brought on by the pandemic.
“The GST Council has already made some choices about the issues, and we will put them into practise. The goal is to make sure leaks are avoided, according to a senior official.
The matter is also anticipated to come up at the subsequent GST Council meeting, where the state finance ministers would be given the specifics. However, officials rejected the idea of further tightening registration requirements, saying that the goal was to make the procedure simple for honest taxpayers rather than burdening them with increased compliance.
The database, which contains 1. 4 crore GST payers, was carefully cleaned up by the tax officials before the culprits were found.
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