Finance Minister Reveals Detection of 21,791 Fake GST Registrations

New Delhi: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said GST officers have detected 21,791 fake GST registrations and over Rs 24,000 crore of suspected tax evasion during a two-month-long special drive. She also said that in order to safeguard the interest of honest taxpayers and avoid extreme hardship to taxpayers, instructions have been issued from time to time, directing officers to exercise due caution and care in the exercise of powers such as summons, provisional attachment of property, blocking of tax credit etc.

“A total of 21,791 entities (11,392 entities pertaining to state tax jurisdiction and 10,399 entities pertaining to CBIC jurisdiction) having GST registration were discovered to be non-existent. An amount of Rs 24,010 crore (state - Rs 8,805 crore + Centre - Rs 15,205 crore) of suspected tax evasion was detected during the special drive,” the finance minister said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

Sitharaman’s statement came while she was replying to a question on the number of entities identified as having fake registrations, and the total amount of evasion detected during the special drive against fake GST registrations conducted by the tax department from May 16 to July 15, 2023. “Considering special nature of e-commerce operators, a simplified procedure for registration of e-commerce operators has already been notified,” she said.